BUGLISI DANCE THEATRE

2023 New York City Season

 

Buglisi Dance Theatre launches 30th Anniversary!

Tues.-Thurs., June 13, 14, 15, 2023 | 7:30 PM

The Ailey Citigroup Theater

at The Joan Weill Center for Dance 

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Dedicated to Jody & John Arnhold

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Honoring

Lighting Designer Jack Mehler

Composer/ Musician Daniel Bernard Roumain

Composer Jeff Beal 

Photographer Paul B. Goode 

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Tickets: $30 | $20 (students/seniors)

Purchase online

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The Company 

Artistic Director: Jacqulyn Buglisi 

Executive Director: Suzanne Konowitz 

Artistic Associate: Terese Capucilli

Producing Consultant: Donald Borror 

 

Dancers 

Terese Capucilli, Christine Dakin, Kevin Predmore, Virginie Mécène

Lauren Jaeger, Blakeley White-McGuire, Jessica Higgins, Jessica Sgambelluri, Ashley Merker 

Greta Campo, Aoi Sato, Esteban Santamaria, Sierra Christine Sanders, Rayan Lecurieux-Durival 

Gabrielle Willis, Isabella Pagano, Jai Perez, Ane Arrieta, Zachary Jeppsen  

Lindsay Phillips. Guest: Daniel Fetecua. Apprentices: Cristina Barretta, Grace Sautter  

So Young An*, Kate Reyes* *do not perform on this evening’s program    

 

Special Guest Artist

Daniel Bernard Roumain 

 

Production Stage Manager: HaeJin Han

Lighting Design: Jack Mehler, Clifton Taylor

Projection Design: Wendall K. Harrington, Yana Biryükova, Joey Moro

Costumes: A. Christina Giannini, Lauren Starobin, Márion Tálan de la Rosa, Anna Blazer 

Soundscape Editor: John K. Stone | Publicist: Lisa Labrado

 

PROGRAM

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REQUIEM (2001) (excerpt)                                                                                                        

Choreography: Jacqulyn Buglisi
Music: Gabriel Fauré
Lighting Design: Clifton Taylor
Set Design: Debora Maché, Sergio Savarese
Costume Design: Jacqulyn Buglisi, A. Christina Giannini

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Requiem was initially inspired by the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi who, forced by the oppression of her society, used her brushes to win the admiration of kings and eventually her own legal right as an independent woman. Her portrait is a reflection of the kind of suppression of freedom that still surrounds many women today. Provoked by the tragedies of 9/11/01, Requiem evolved into a choreography reflective of its time.

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THE THREADS PROJECT #1 "Universal Dialogues" (2022)

Five Excerpts from the evening-length work based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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Direction and Choreography: Jacqulyn Buglisi
Collaborating Choreographers: Jennifer Archibald, PeiJu Chien-Pott, Jesse Obremski, Daniel Fetecua &
Blakeley White-McGuire
Lighting/Set Design: Jack Mehler
Projection Design: Joey Moro
Costume Design: Lauren Starobin
Soundscape Editor: John K. Stone

 

Quartet by Jesse Obremski

Quintet by Jennifer Archibald

Murmuration by Jacqulyn Buglisi 

Duet by PeiJu Chien-Pott

Two Couples by Blakeley White-McGuire, Daniel Fetecua

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This performance is an excerpt of Buglisi’s evening-length work, which had its premiere at Chelsea Factory in June 2022, and featured Buglisi’s collaboration with eight diverse choreographers whose choreographies she wove seamlessly into the tapestry of the dance. The dance takes its inspiration from Eleanor Roosevelt and the writers of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaiming that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights...”

 

World Premiere 

ILLUMINATIONS

Choreography: Jacqulyn Buglisi

Composer/Musician: Daniel Bernard Roumain

Spoken Word “Awakening”: Marc Bamuthi Joseph narrated by Terese Capucilli and Christine Dakin

Lighting Design: Jack Mehler

Costume Designer, Spoken Word: Nadya

Costume Coordinator, Dancers: Márion Tálan de la Rosa 

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In 2020, impacted by the crises our country is facing, Buglisi collaborated with composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, Spoken Word Artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Artistic Associate Terese Capucilli to create the Table of Silence Prologue, a powerful message for healing as we struggle with the global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement for racial justice. Buglisi’s new work Illuminations is borne out of imagining that the arts can transform lives through building a culture of peace, while repairing the human condition with the hope that makes us human.

Our Country © Daniel Bernard Roumain
“Awakening” © Marc Bamuthi Joseph commissioned by Buglisi Dance Theatre (2020)

 

SPEAK MEMORY (1996) 

Choreography: Jacqulyn Buglisi    

Music: John Tavener      

Lighting Design: Jack Mehler; original lighting design Clifton Taylor   

Costume: A. Christina Giannini | Set Design: Deborah Maché

Performed by: 

Terese Capucilli

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And it is not yet enough to have memories. Only when they have changed into our very blood, into glanceand gesture, and are nameless, no longer to be distinguished from ourselves—only then can it happen that insome very rare hour the first word of a poem arises in their midst and goes forth from them. —Rilke 

Speak Memory created from the full-length Bare to the Wall commissioned by The Joyce TheaterFoundation and premiered at The Joyce Theater, 1996.

 

World Premiere

SUNS AND FUTURE IMAGININGS

Choreography: Jacqulyn Buglisi

Music: Hania Rani, Jason Swinscoe, Dominic Smith 

Lighting Design: Jack Mehler

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Home. Empathy. Compassion. Truth.
In her new work, Buglisi takes inspiration from Ada Limón, the first Latina to be named Poet Laureate of the United States; Marie Howe’s poetry that explores the spiritual dimensions of life; and Adrienne Maree Brown’s writings, on interdependence and the healing and transformative power found in communal collaboration and ritual practice. Suns and Future Imaginings expands upon the theme that all human beings are connected regardless of race, gender, religion, or cultural heritage. Rani’s introspective music on the human condition speaks directly to Buglisi’s vision, and illustrates a strong belief that “when being in uncertain times and living an unstable life, we can still reach peace with ourselves and be able to find ‘home’ anywhere.” - hr. Home is within you; in the future we will recognize this profound understanding, illuminating your place in the world, in finding true happiness in knowing thyself, the mystery and the miracle that is life.

 

SOSPIRI (1989)

Choreography: Jacqulyn Buglisi | Music: Edward Elgar 

Lighting Design: Clifton Taylor | Costume Design: A. Christina Giannini 

Performed by: 

Virginie Mécène, Kevin Predmore (6/13, 14)

Lindsay Phillips, Zachary Jeppsen (6/15)

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In 1848, Camila O'Gorman (the Juliet of the pampas) and her lover, the Jesuit priest, Ladislav Gutierrez, were hunted down and executed by a firing squad for their illicit love. This timeless story has become legend among the peasants of Argentina.  Sospiri was first performed in 1989 by the Martha Graham Dance Company at New York City Center, NYC.

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MOSS ANTHOLOGY: VARIATION#5 (2019)

Choreography: Jacqulyn Buglisi | Commissioned Composer: Jeff Beal

Lighting Design: Jack Mehler | Co-Projection Design: Wendall K. Harrington, Yana Birÿkova

Costume Design: A. Christina Giannini  

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The Moss project is an awakening to the current global climate crises that threatens the existence of all life on our planet. Variation#5 is the final dance in Buglisi’s Moss Anthology, an expansive realization of several ballets developed over a two-year period including residencies at UCSB and Marymount Manhattan College, and performed on both the East and West coasts of America and in Europe. The dance was inspired by the writings of Potawatomi botanist and poet Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer who draws on the wisdom of both indigenous ways of knowing and scientific knowledge for the sustainability of humanity through the practice
of reciprocity.

 

Music copyright © Jeff Beal 2019, Courtesy of Post Meridian Music. Management Past | Future Consultants

 

Leadership support for Buglisi Dance Theatre’s 2022-2023 Season is generously provided by Jody and John Arnhold | Arnhold Foundation. Buglisi Dance Theatre acknowledges the generous support of Howard Gilman Foundation, Caroline and Edward S. Hyman, Jr., O’Donnell Green Music and Dance Foundation, Heinz Family Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, A.S. Thomas Memorial Fund, Myers-Ball Foundation, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the State Legislature. BDT gratefully acknowledges the support of Susan Numeroff, Penny Frank Mandel and the BDT Board of the Directors and Executive Advisory Council, and BDT’s many individual patrons and volunteers. BDT expresses its gratitude to Damian Woetzel, Alicia Graf Mack, Katie Friis, Megan Peterson, The Juilliard School; Linda Murray, Daisy Pommer, Dance Division New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and to Robert Battle, Artistic Director Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the leadership and staff of The Ailey Citigroup Theater, Alaric Hahn, Kris Carr, Joel Wilhelmi. 

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Choreography copyright © Jacqulyn Buglisi

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Illuminations, pictured Daniel Bernard Roumain, violin, and Grace Sautter, dancer 

Photo by Paul B. Goode