Mikhail Baryshnikov and Hell's Kitchen Dance kick off tour at The Bushnell
May 30, 2007 – HARTFORD , CT – The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts is proud to announce that The Bushnell’s Belding Theater will be the first tour stop for the Hell’s Kitchen Dance Tour with Mikhail Baryshnikov. The tour comes to The Bushnell’s Belding Theater in Hartford on June 27 and 28 for one performance each evening at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased in person at The Bushnell’s Box Office at 166 Capitol Avenue in Hartford . Tickets may also be purchased by calling the Box Office at (860) 987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. All seats are $75 each. The performances are part of the Bank of America Showcase Series.
This is the second tour by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Hell’s Kitchen Dance. Praised by the New York Times for “virtuoso dancing” during their first tour in 2006, Hell’s Kitchen Dance will perform Aszure Barton’s Come In, Benjamin Millepied’s Years Later, and Donna Uchizono’s Leap to Tall, three dances that were commissioned by Baryshnikov Dance Foundation and created at the New York-based Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) in 2006. Their work will be danced by Baryshnikov and Hell’s Kitchen Dance, an ensemble of performers, mostly from The Julliard School and New York University ’s Tisch School of the Arts, who for the second year, have received fellowships from BAC for this tour. The Hell’s Kitchen Dancers are Aszure Barton, Jonathan Alsberry, William Briscoe, Hristoula Harakas, Lesley Kennedy, Na-Ye Kim, Doug Letheren Jodi Melnick, Shamel Pitts, Emily Proctor, Ian Robinson, Kyle Robinson, Cynthia Salgado, and Ashley Wailes Wallace.
The Baryshnikov Arts Center, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s artistic venture that opened its doors in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City in November 2005, is an international center for artistic experimentation and collaboration, which serves as a creative laboratory for emerging and mid-career artists from around the world and across all disciplines. The Hell’s Kitchen Dance tour offers an opportunity for national and international audiences to experience fresh talent and the works created by artists selected by Baryshnikov and produced in the stimulating environment of BAC.
Aszure Barton’s Come In, set to music by Vladimir Martynov, with video by Kevin Freeman, merges projected video with the accompaniment of dancers. The work will be performed by Baryshnikov and Hell’s Kitchen Dance. Canadian-born Barton trained and danced with the National Ballet School in Toronto , and upon graduation, she performed with Les ballets Jazz de Montreal. A winner of the 2003 Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s National Choreographic Competition, she has performed throughout Europe and made an extremely successful New York debut at Joyce SoHo in 2003 with her company ASzURe & Artists. Barton’s company performed at the Joyce Theater , The Kravis Center and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Summerdance Santa Barbara, and Spoleto Festival.
Benjamin Millepied’s Years Later is the result of several years of collaboration with Millepied’s long-time friend and videographer Olivier Simola (a respected artist who has often teamed with Philippe Decouffle) and Baryshnikov who has known Millepied since he was a student and protégé of Jerome Robbins. The work is set to scores from Philip Glass’s Saxophones, Meredith Monk’s St. Petersburg Waltz and Urban March, and Erik Satie’s Gnossiennes No.1 and 3. Performed by Baryshnikov and Barton, Years Later features Baryshnikov interacting with video footage of both past and present. Millepied’s growing career as a choreographer parallels his swift rise as a professional dancer. Born in Bordeaux , France , Millepied studied at the Conservatoire National in Lyon and New York ’s School of American Ballet . His creation, Double Aria, was one of the highlights of the 2006 New York City Ballet season, and his production ofThe Nutcracker for the Geneva Ballet in December 2005 received critical acclaim.
Donna Uchizono’s Leap to Tall, set to music by Michael Floyd and Iva Bittova, was commissioned by the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation and premiered at Bard College in June 2006. The work will be performed by Baryshnikov and two dancers from Hell’s Kitchen Dance. Uchizono is the artistic director of the Donna Uchizono Company. In addition to being a Guggenheim Fellow and a “Bessie” award winner, she has been recognized with many awards, most recently with a 2005 Alpert Award in Dance. She has participated in festivals and teaching institutions throughout Europe and has been a guest choreographer at several universities and colleges in the United States . Uchizono currently teaches at Long Island University .
About The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts
The Bushnell is Connecticut ’s premier performing arts center, hosting more than 350 events yearly, including major Broadway tours, symphony orchestras, family presentations, lo cal arts and community events. In November 2001, The Bushnell completed a $45 million expansion project that added a second, 907-seat theater to the existing historic structure. The new, state-of-the-art performance hall allo ws for expanded arts, entertainment and community offerings. The Bushnell’s nationally-recognized arts-in-education program, PARTNERS (Partners in Arts and Education Revitalizing Schools ), is a cross-community educational effort serving 20 schools in 12 districts throughout the Greater Hartford area. The Bushnell opened in January 1930 and is a non-profit organization. For more information, call The Bushnell at (860) 987-6000, The Bushnell Box Office at (860) 987-5900 or visit our website at www.bushnell.org.
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