Friday October 7, 2011 - On this day filled with dance, Kokyat and I checked in with MORPHOSES and with Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company (both rehearsing at the DANY studios) and then I headed to Lincoln Center for JEWELS at New York City Ballet. In the photo at top, part of the score for BACCHAE, composed by Paolo Aralla.
The dancers of MORPHOSES have returned to New York City from their residency at the Vineyard Arts Project where they worked intensely on Luca Veggetti's BACCHAE which will premiere at The Joyce on October 25th.
Here are some of the artists involved in this MORPHOSES production:
Choreographer Luca Veggetti
Flautist Erin Lesser...that's part of her musical score at the top of this article.
The Dancers:
Yusha-Marie Sorzano
Emma Pfaeffle
Gabrielle Lamb
Brittany Fridenstine
Adrian Danchig-Waring. Adrian is a soloist at New York City Ballet.
Christopher Bordenave
Morgan Lugo
Willy Laury, Sarah Arkins
Brandon Cournay
Frances Chiaverini
Drawing on Euripides, Luca Veggetti and his collaborators have shaped a dancework with the following narrative:
"Dionysus, the god of wine, prophecy, religious ecstasy, and fertility returns to his birthplace in Thebes in order to clear his mother's name and punish the insolent city-state for refusing to allow people to worship him.
King Pentheus of Thebes has declared illegal the Bacchic rituals initiated by his cousin Dionysus. As these rituals represent a threat to social order, King Pentheus orders his soldiers to violently suppress them.
Dionysus begins the long process of trapping Pentheus, leading him to his death. He convinces the intrigued and excited king to witness the rituals and volunteers to help him clandestinely observe the highly secretive all-female gatherings.
Dionysus, manipulating the situation, orders the Bacchic worshippers, including the king's mother Agave, to attack the now vulnerable ruler. As he falls, Pentheus reaches for his mother's face but Agave, driven mad by Dionysus, proceeds to rip her son limb from limb."
Certain of these themes seem unusually timely these days: competing modes of religious beliefs and rites, and the violent suppression of "threats to the social order".
Aside from Ms. Lesser (above), who will play various instruments of the flute family in the course of BACCHAE...
...the ballet features a mysterious 'sounding platform' which produces uncanny music of its own as the dancers move on or across it. Read about this fascinating aspect of the production here.
Rehearsal images by Kokyat. Black & whites by Oberon.