The Limón Dance Firm is within the midst of a NYC season at The Joyce Theater, kicking off the corporate’s 80th anniversary celebration. The season, working by way of this Sunday, October 19, is a daring, worldwide program honoring not solely the revolutionary fashionable choreographer and firm founder José Limón but in addition distinctive inventive voices of in the present day and the continuation of Limón’s legacy.
This system opens with Limón’s 1942 solo Chaconne, a meditation on kind, dignity and the elevation of the male dance determine in fashionable dance. On this efficiency, nonetheless, the piece is reimagined for an ensemble of former and present Limón Firm dancers, bringing collectively artists who’ve formed the corporate throughout many years. Chaconne is accompanied by stay music.
Subsequent on this system is a brand new reconstruction (by present Creative Director Dante Puleio) of Limón’s The Emperor Jones, a piece from 1956 which was impressed by Eugene O’Neill’s play and that explores authority, vulnerability and the load of self-mythology. This present reconstruction of the work, with up to date costuming and staging, is the primary in its historical past to function a mixed-gender corps, talking to in the present day’s audiences whereas additionally remaining true to Limón’s emotional fact.
The night concludes with Jamelgos, a world premiere from Mexican choreographer Diego Vega Solorza that explores and displays on masculinity and the inherited legacies of gender interpretation in Mexican tradition. Vega Solorza’s choreography is private and pressing, and Jamelgos is about to an unique rating by up to date American composer Ebe Oke. This piece falls underneath the José Limón Dance Basis’s mission to foster U.S.-Mexico inventive change, and to proceed to deepen viewers’s understanding of gender, expression and the shared histories that join us all.
Right here, Dance Informa speaks with Limón Firm dancers Savannah Spratt, a 10-year firm member and performer in all three program works; and Johnson Guo, a New York native who’s featured in The Emperor Jones as The Emperor.
What introduced you to the Limón Firm, and in what approach(s) do you’re feeling at dwelling within the firm and in dancing José Limón’s choreography?
Savannah Spratt
“I used to be launched to the Limón fashion whereas I used to be a pupil at UNCSA. Throughout my closing yr, a small solid lead by former firm member Sean Sullivan traveled to NYC to carry out Concerto Grosso on the Joyce as a part of the muse’s 70th anniversary celebration. We bought to see the corporate onstage, and I used to be instantly taken by their storytelling. The expression, integrity and full-bodied dedication to motion introduced me to tears. I had by no means seen something prefer it. I knew instantly that I wished to be immersed within the work and was fortunate sufficient to be employed by way of an audition shortly after graduating in 2016. Within the nearly 10 years since, this work and its values have formed me into the particular person and performer I’m in the present day, together with introducing a few of my closest mates, supporters, lecturers and inspirations. This firm is my inventive dwelling, and this work is the guiding path. I really feel secure to experiment day by day, to proceed questioning and altering and studying and rising into my full self by way of this work.”
Johnson Guo
“In my freshman yr at SUNY Buy, I used to be given the chance to carry out the lead function in considered one of Limón’s masterworks, Psalm. I had little or no publicity to the approach and magnificence, however the uncooked emotionality and restraint-free motion felt pure. Over the past 5 years finding out Limón’s approach and his choreographies, I’ve realized that the extra I carry out José Limón’s works, the extra I uncover myself as human.”
Savannah, as an organization member for the previous 10 years, do you’re feeling in some methods like a senior firm member? How do you’re feeling you’ve grown – and even perhaps helped others develop into roles and their place within the firm – over your time with the corporate?
Spratt
“Working on this firm as a senior member shouldn’t be a task I take frivolously. Coming into this world nearly 10 years in the past, I used to be extraordinarily lucky to overlap with a number of the greatest mentors and dancers I had ever met, and their work ethic and humble nature set a tone that I hope to uphold for everybody becoming a member of after me. One factor I’ve discovered to not shrink back from is sharing when I’ve questions or am struggling to meet one thing in my very own kind. Chances are high, another person is tackling the identical impediment and has info that may assist us each to deepen our understanding. Absorbing from so many alternative coworkers’ our bodies over time has taught me a lot about my very own, as a result of everybody coming into this work has expertise and data that provides to the collective in a singular approach.”
You’ll be dancing in all three works through the Joyce season – wow! What’s it like going from work to work on this broad ranging program?
Spratt
“Each bit on this program is difficult in a singular approach, though I’ve realized ‘focus’ is the widespread thread. Chaconne is essentially the most acquainted to me, however dancing it surrounded by idols and dwelling members of this epic legacy has made it really feel new once more. The Emperor Jones requires a simmering depth however leaves room for improvisation and response. Jamelgos necessitates an unparalleled stage of focus and precision, tuning into the rhythm of the group to maneuver as one beast.”
Dancing a few of Limón’s choreography from 1942 (Chaconne) and 1956 (The Emperor Jones) should be so attention-grabbing. How do you’re feeling these items has developed (or not) over time, and in what methods do you’re feeling these works are nonetheless related and necessary for audiences to see?
Guo
“José Limón is a grasp at telling tales by way of motion. [In The Emperor Jones], with no phrases, he can let you know the story of a person so hungry for energy that he turned that very energy he despised and on the finish, the neighborhood overtakes him. Placing a number of the contexts of Eugene O’Neill’s play apart, the story could be very human. José Limón at all times discovered tales that show humane natures. That and his means to current tales by way of motion is why this choreography can nonetheless have which means in the present day.”
Spratt
“The a number of generations coming collectively [for Chaconne] have highlighted the nuances and variations of the choreography over time. As soloists, the intentions and pathways had been honed to make sense for the physique bringing it to life within the area. Now that we’ve got collected, it’s clear that the facility of this piece has solely grown over the 80+ years of its existence. It highlights the wonder and power that fills every part of a dancer’s life span, evolving as we do. We now have reworked from 21 soloists into one unified being, and that means to come back collectively is extra mandatory now than ever.”
Johnson, you’ll be featured in The Emperor Jones as The Emperor – thrilling! Are you able to inform us a bit about that function – its character, any challenges, most rewarding elements?
“Dancing any function of José Limón’s is a journey. It’s a very dynamic however but inside journey that should be seen. That’s the most difficult a part of taking part in The Emperor. I needed to learn to show all of my advanced inside feelings and the shifts of feelings as I enterprise by way of the historical past that made me The Emperor. It feels very weak, however that vulnerability is what is going to trigger folks to query their very own. That’s what is rewarding.”
Are you able to inform us a bit in regards to the premiere on this system, Jamelgos? What was it like working with Diego Vega Solorza, and what do you hope audiences will take away from this piece?
Spratt
“Diego created an environment that’s in contrast to something the corporate has inhabited earlier than. He has pulled new textures and qualities to the floor and created one thing that requires full dedication and focus to realize. His imaginative and prescient was crystal clear from the beginning, and I hope that audiences benefit from the experience!”
Do you could have a favourite or most fulfilling work on this system?
Spratt
“Chaconne will at all times be near my coronary heart! The chance to mark this momentous anniversary by collaborating throughout generations, accompanied by Bach’s music, is an expertise that may by no means be matched. Witnessing dancers of their 80s returning to the stage is proof that love for this piece solely strengthens over time.”
Guo
“I’m extraordinarily excited for the piece that I’m not a part of, Chaconne. This time not as a solo, however as a multi-generational over 20-person ensemble to have fun considered one of Limón’s most elegant solos.”
What’s it like kicking off the corporate’s 80th anniversary with this Joyce season and program? What are you most trying ahead to?
Guo
“I’m most trying ahead to seeing the shock from everybody seeing the path that the corporate goes towards. A will to respect the artistry of José Limón, and a will to additional the artistry of future generations of dance artists.”
Spratt
“It’s thrilling, as at all times, to return to the Joyce! That is the theater the place I first witnessed the fantastic thing about the corporate, and every time we cross by way of the doorways of this sacred area, I’m reminded of how unimaginable it’s to contribute to this ongoing legacy.
The magnificence of this firm is that it’s not one mounted entity or aesthetic. Our reimagining of historic works and boundary-pushing commissions proceed to maneuver the sphere ahead. For those who assume you understand Limón, be ready for a re-introduction every time you see a efficiency.”
For tickets and extra info, go to www.joyce.org/performances/limon-dance-company-zmh4.
By Laura Di Orio of Dance Informa.
