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March 4, 2008
BJM Danse to bring distinctive style to Purdue stage
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - |
The performance is presented by Purdue Convocations as part of the World Stage series. The program features "MAPA" by choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras, a creation that combines classical ballet and Brazilian popular dance, and "Les Chambres des Jacques," an intimate work from lauded choreographer Aszure Barton, said Todd Wetzel, director of Purdue Convocations.
The event includes a pre-show discussion featuring BJM Danse artistic director Louis Robitalle, who will discuss the works to be performed that evening and the aesthetic direction of the company. The talk will take place at 6:30 p.m. March 26 in Stewart Center, Room 320.
The date of this performance was changed from its originally scheduled date of April 10 due to a change in the company's touring schedule.
"Ever since its inception in 1972, BJM Danse has been known for its vitality and spirit of exploration," Wetzel said. "Since the arrival of Louis Robitalle as artistic director in 1998, BJM Danse has been true to its mission to create choreographic works inspired by the innovative spirit of modern jazz and based on the technique and aesthetic of classical dance.
"Robitalle also has introduced an innovative repertoire that fuses the classical and the contemporary with other art forms, such as theatre, the circus, visual arts and new music in ways that allow the company to blend emerging disciplines while continuing to accentuate the human body and pay tribute to the splendor of its mechanics, its strength and its sensuality."
"MAPA," by Rodrigo Pederneiras, the exclusive choreographer of the internationally acclaimed Brazilian dance company Groupo Corpo, features a union of traditional Brazilian movements with classical ballet, infused with Pederneiras' own artistic style.
His work has won international recognition. In Brazil, he created the choreography for the Ballet do Theatro Municial do Rio de Janeiro, the Ballet da Cidade de São Paulo and the Companhia de Dança de Minas Gerais. He has also created works for the Deutsch Oper Berlin Company in Germany, the Gulbenkian in Portugal, the Stadttheater of Saint Gallen in Switzerland and the Opéra du Rhin in France.
In "Les Chambres des Jacques," choreographer Aszure Barton explores the intricacy and eccentricity of everyday human life – a series of portraits where disarticulated body movements flirt around with the trivial details of daily life, Wetzel said.
The musical score, which includes classical music, Québécois folk tunes, as well as klezmer, gypsy and Yiddish melodies, provides a canvas for the choreography. Barton, a New York-based Canadian-born choreographer and dancer, is the artistic director of Aszure & Artists, founded in 2002. She has been commissioned to create works for Mikhail Baryshnikov, Hell's Kitchen Dance, Benjamin Millepied & Company and The Juilliard School, among others.
Barton recently choreographed the 2006 Broadway production of "The Threepenny Opera," starring Alan Cumming, Jim Dale, Ana Gasteyer, Cyndi Lauper and Nellie McKay. Wetzel said Barton has been described as one of the most innovative choreographers of this generation, and her choreography has been described as intensely musical, emotionally moving and structurally astonishing.
Tickets are available at the Elliott Hall and Stewart Center box offices at (765) 494-3933 or (800) 914-SHOW. Tickets also are available through Ticketmaster outlets. Tickets are $26 for adults and $19 for children 18 years and younger, Purdue students and Ivy Tech Lafayette students.
Writer: Christy Jones, (765) 494-1089, christyjones@purdue.edu
Source: Kerry Schutt Nason, Purdue Convocations director of marketing, (765) 494-5045, knason@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Publication-quality photos of BJM Danse are available at https://www.purdue.edu/convos/
bjmimages.shtml
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