Juilliard Dance's 2014-15 Season Opens with 'New Dances: Edition 2014' in December

Juilliard Dance, under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes, opens its 2014-15 season in December with New Dances: Edition 2014 featuring four world premieres by innovative choreographers: Juilliard alumnus Austin McCormick (1st-Year Dancers); alumna Loni Landon (2nd-Year Dancers); Kate Weare (3rd-Year Dancers); and Larry Keigwin (4th-Year Dancers). Mr. Keigwin is returning to Juilliard where he previously choreographed and premiered, in December 2008, Runaway, a large-scale piece that riffs on the high fashion runway scene, and, in December 2009, Megalopolis.

Lighting design is by Clifton Taylor and costume design is by Fritz Masten.

New Dances: Edition 2014 performances take place on Wednesday, December 10; Thursday, December 11; Friday, December 12; and Saturday, December 13 at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, December 14 at 3 p.m. in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

Tickets at $30 are available at events.juilliard.edu. Juilliard students are free; non-Juilliard students with valid ID may purchase tickets for $15 at the Juilliard Box Office.

Austin McCormick has set his work, Follia, for the 1st-year dancers to Arcangelo Corelli's La Follia, which will be performed live by Juilliard Historical Performance musicians: violinist Noémy Gagnon-Lafrenais, cellist Caroline Nicolas, theorbist Paul Morton, and harpsichordist Leonard Schmid (December 10, 12, and 14); and violinist Anna Lester, cellist Sarah Stone, theorbist Paul Morton, and harpsichordist Melody Nishinaga (December 11 and 13). Mr. McCormick calls the piece Neo-Baroque. When he was a student at Juilliard, he used this music for his independent project. He is revisiting this since it has a special relationship to his choreographic journey and his time at Juilliard. He is working with 24 dancers. "The Baroque vocabulary is so much about patterns and symmetry that to be able to work with that many dancers is truly a rarity and a privilege," he says. "I am always interested in the relationship and contrast between public versus private personas. This piece explores highly ornamented Baroque movement and simple emotional stark movement."

It's been almost 10 years since Loni Landon graduated from Juilliard, and she is collaborating with Juilliard faculty member and composer Jerome Begin on a score for electronics and chamber music. Mr. Begin has attended rehearsals and is basing his work on the ideas that were developing in the dancers's movement. Ms. Landon says: "Creating on a large group of dancers is a huge task and requires me to use architecture to compose the group in a way that does not overwhelm the space. The expansiveness has actually informed the way in which the dancers move on stage. The image that is inspired by this group is that of a swarm of bees in nature, and the way that these swarms move and morph together as they travel. Within this structure, I am allowing solos, duets, trios, and smaller groups to emerge and offer an intimate look into the dynamic of the swarm. Throughout the creative process, my goal is to impress upon the dancers what it means to share in a real collaborative process, something that they will encounter in their careers as professional dancers."

An early inspiration for Kate Weare's work for the 3rd-year dancers was a recording of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's Passagalia for unaccompanied violin from the Rosary Sonatas, performed by Andrew Manze. She says, "Placing this exquisitely spare, single-voiced music against the intensity of multiple bodies in space might create an interesting tension or possibly even an intimacy." A contemporary piece of music will contrast with Biber's music. Ms. Weare is working with 24 dancers, and divides Night Light between the entire ensemble and then solos, duets, triplets, and quartets that will allow the audience more intimate access to the dancers as individuals.

Larry Keigwin's animal-inspired work is entitled Terrain for the 4th-years and is set to a newly-commissioned percussive score by Brooklyn composer Curtis Macdonald. Mr. Keigwin is working with 26 dancers and is thinking of them as a herd; he's fascinated by "motion camouflage," a way in which animals ward against predators. His work is an animalistic journey through various terrains. Fast footwork, light jumps, and darting steps are on display in Keigwin's choreography. The 15-minute work will be in four movements: 1. River; 2. Mountain; 3. Night; 4. Ritual.

About the Choreographers

Austin McCormick is founder and artistic director of Company XIV; his works have been presented at The Kennedy Center, La MaMa, Symphony Space, The Flea, Alvin Ailey Theater, Mark Morris Dance Center, and internationally in London, Scotland, Montreal, and Mexico. He was the winner of the 2011 Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Grant from Opera America for new directors in opera for the premiere of John Adams' A Flowering Tree. He also was winner of the 2010 New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Choreography for Le Serpent Rouge. Mr. McCormick was the first winner of the Susan Braun Grant Award from Dance Films Association, and his films have toured internationally to Amsterdam, London, Budapest, Latvia, and France. The short film Folies D'Espagne, for which he created choreography, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center. Mr. McCormick holds a bachelor of fine arts degree (2006) from Juilliard and is a graduate of the Conservatory of Baroque Dance. He is also an alumnus of the Harid Conservatory and North Carolina School of the Arts. In addition to choreographing, he has danced professionally for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and has taught and lectured on Baroque dance as a guest of the Korean government. He currently is pursuing his master's degree from NYU.

Loni Landon, the recipient of the 2013 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship, was also awarded first prize at Ballet Austin's New American Talent Competition in 2012. In 2010, she co-founded the Playground (New York City) with Gregory Dolbashian. The Playground is an open forum where professional dancers directly engage with emerging and established choreographers. Ms. Landon's original choreography has been performed at the State Theater of Munich, APAP at New York City Center, American College Dance Festival (performed by Snow College Dance Ensemble), SUNY Purchase, Jacob's Pillow, Inside/Out, Dance Gallery Festival at the Ailey Theater in NYC, DanceNOW at Joe's Pub, WestFest, Pushing Progress, HT CHEN'S New Steps Choreography Series, and Dumbo Dance Festival. As a sought-after choreographer, her work has been commissioned by Northwest Dance Project, CityDance Ensemble, Ballet X, and the New American Talent Commission from Ballet Austin. Born and raised in New York City, Loni Landon received her training from Juilliard, The School at Jacob's Pillow, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Scholarship Program, Dance Theater of Harlem, and NYC High School of Performing Arts. Upon receiving her B.F.A. in dance from Juilliard (2005), she worked with Aszure Barton on the opening of the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Soon thereafter, she joined Ballet Theater Munich from 2005 to 2007 under the direction of Phillip Taylor. From 2007 to 2009, she joined Tanz Munich Theater under the direction of Henning Paar. During her time in Munich, she performed works by many premier European choreographers. Ms. Landon is currently a dancer with the Metropolitan Opera.

Kate Weare, artistic director of Kate Weare Company, received a Guggenheim Fellowship Award in 2014, The Mellon Foundation Award through The Joyce Theater's Fellowship Program in 2014 and 2011, and The Princess Grace Fellowship for Choreography in 2009. Kate Weare Company is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary season, culminating in performances at BAM in February 2015. Ms. Weare is currently creating a new work for her company through a Creative Artist Residency with The Joyce to premiere at The Joyce Theater in 2016. In 2013, Weare's work Dark Lark was presented by Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, and that same year, she was chosen as the Inaugural Artist for BAM Fisher's Artist-in-Residence Program - a five-week creative development residency and commission period. Her company was also selected for BAM's 2013-14 professional development program. Previously, she's been awarded a Joyce SoHo Artist-in-Residency, a Jacob's Pillow Artist-in-Residency & Project Commission, a Dance New Amsterdam Artist-in-Residency, First Prize in NYC's The A.W.A.R.D. Show, a Danspace Project Commission, a Bates Dance Festival Artist-in-Residency, a Djerassi Artist-in-Residency, a Choreographic Fellowship at The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography and several Dance Theater Workshop Project Commissions. Raised by visual artists in the San Francisco Bay Area, Ms. Weare received her BFA from California Institute of the Arts and danced in Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Belgrade and Montreal before settling in New York in 2000 and founding her company in 2005.

Larry Keigwin founded Keigwin+Company in 2003 and as artistic director, has led the company as it has performed at theaters and dance festivals throughout New York City and across the country. In addition to his work with K+C, his work has been performed on Works & Process at the Guggenheim, at Juilliard ("New Dances"), the New York City Ballet's Choreographic Institute, and the Martha Graham Dance Company, among many others. In 2010, he staged the opening event of New York City's Fashion Week: "Fashion's Night Out: The Show," which was produced by Vogue magazine and featured more than 150 of the industry's top models. In 2011, Mr. Keigwin choreographed the new musical Tales of the City at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, as well as the new off-Broadway production of Rent, now running at New World Stages. He received the Joe A. Callaway Award for his choreography in Rent in 2011. He has also created Keigwin Kabaret, a fusion of modern dance, vaudeville, and burlesque, presented by the Public Theater at Joe's Pub and by Symphony Space. Mr. Keigwin is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreography Society. Mr. Keigwin is a native New Yorker and a graduate of Hofstra University.