UMS Concert Program, : Ums Dance And Theater --

Season: 2006/2007

On Stage
2006/2007 UMS Dance and Theater
Photo: Royal Shakespeare Company (by P
Here) Cover Photo: Hubbard Stret Dance Company (by Todd Rosenberg)
On Stage at UMS
When the extraordinary becomes the ordinary, it's easy to lose perspective.
Over the past two decades, UMS has worked hard to develop a strong program of dance and theater that equals the strength and depth of our musical traditions. Our distinctive series enriches the region broadly by enhancing its status as an attractive place to live and work. But UMS's programs do much more than enrich our communities -they also transform each individual audience member in ways that are personally meaningful.
That transformative power of the arts -that moment of connection between the individual audience member and the individual artist on stage -is what UMS tries to make possible with each performance we present. We strive to make each and every event an uncommon and engaging experience, providing aesthetic connections to moments of unsurpassed beauty, visceral responses of raw emotion, and ideas that challenge us to think in new ways.
On Stage at UMS in the 0607 season, you will find the colorful traditions of Mexican folkloric music and dance. The enduring voice and vision of a 20th-century choreographic icon. The grandeur and spectacle of the Royal Shakespeare Company. An elegant reinterpretation of an ancient Chinese legend. Brand new, provocative dance and theater performed by living American artists. The complex rhythm and soul of Afro-Caribbean culture. The speed and sound of Irish feet pushing new limits.
The dance and theater events listed in this brochure provide the promise of transcendent moments, reminders of what is possible. As a UMS audience member noted earlier this year, "UMS takes me to a place where imagination is thriving."
Now that's extraordinary.
Amalia Hernandez'
Ballet Folklorico de Mexico
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 8 PM Hill Auditorium
Known for the kaleidoscopic pageantry of its lavish costumes and breathtaking sets, the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico is a reflection of the many kindred spirits and souls that make up Mexico. Hauntingly meditative dances derived from long-vanished Indian traditions share the stage with vibrant and colorful fiestas. Ceremonies of death give way to celebrations of birth and life. Mexico's national dance company retums to Ann Arbor for the first time since 1999 for a special Hill Auditorium performance that launches UMS's Global Series focused on Mexico and the Americas. Hernandez, who died in 2001, developed choreography based on the style and roots of Mexican folklore with an underlying classical ballet technique. Her company both celebrates Mexican culture and preserves it for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.
Sponsored by '
Media Partner Metro Times.
Main Floor $44 $36 $30 $20 Mezzanine $34$30$10 Balcony $24 $20 $16 $10
Photo: Fang-Yi Sheu in "Spectre-1914" from Sketches from Chronicle (1936] (photo by John Deane)
Martha Graham Dance Company
Janet Eilber artistic director FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 8 PM SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14,8 PM Power Center
Recognized as a seminal artistic force of the 20th century alongside Picasso, Stravinsky, James Joyce, and Frank Lloyd Wright, Martha Graham is now firmly ensconced in the pantheon of American legends. Her 181 works epitomize aesthetic daring and uninhibited grace, and many of them are rightly considered classics of American modern dance. The company performs two different programs.
PROGRAM (FRI 1013)
Prelude and Revolt: Denishawn to Graham (seven dances charting the era when
Graham revolutionized the world of dance and theater) Errand into the Maze (Music by Menotti) (1947) Acts of Light (Music by Carl Nielsen) (1981)
PROGRAM (SAT 1014) Errand into the Maze (Music by Menotti) (1947) Diversion of Angels (Music by Dello Joio) (1948) Appalachian Spring (Music by Copland) (1944) Chronicle (Music by Wallingford Riegger) 1936)
Media Partners WRCJ 90.9 FM, WDET 101.9 FM, Metro Times, and Detroit Jewish News.
Main Floor $48 $44 $32 $26 Balcony $44 $38 $32 $20
are Company (photo by Pau Ros)
Royal Shakespeare Company 2006
A Festival of Shakespeare's Classics
Presented with major support from the University of Michigan OCTOBER 24 NOVEMBER 12 Power Center
The Royal Shakespeare Company retums to Ann Arbor for three weeks in October and November 2006, with performances of Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, and The Tempest. Ann Arbor is the only city in the United States to host these three plays.
Photo: Silver RiyffO 2002 by Stephanie ficrger)
A Music-Theatre Work in One Act
Silver River
Music by Bright Sheng Libretto by David Henry Hwang FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 8 PM SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 8 PM
Power Center
"Sheng has fashioned a music theater fable of great charm and imagination...With a sweet simplicity, [Silver River] creates magic before our eyes." [Chicago Tribune) MacArthur "Genius" Grant winner Bright Sheng and Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang created Silver River in 1997, and it quickly became a highlight at the Spoleto Festival and the Lincoln Center Festival. This masterful integration of Western and Chinese cultures unites Western opera, drama, and dance with Chinese opera and virtuosic solo playing of the Chinese lute (pipa) in an entertaining telling of a 4,000-year-old Chinese folktale about the creation of day and night. Today, this tale is familiar in many Asian countries as a symbolic story of perfect love struggling to survive in an imperfect world.
Presented in partnership with University Productions and the U-M Office of the Provost.
Main Floor $40 $38 $28 $22 Balcony $38 $34 $28 $18
Photo: Sekou Sundiata in the 5Jst (dreamt state (by Julieta Cervantes)
the 51st (dream) stale
Sekou Sundiata
SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 8 PM Power Center
Sekou Sundiata retums with his new work, the 51st (dream) state, a candid, yet lyrical contemplation of America's national identity and its guiding mythologies that is both lyrical and questioning. The work features next-generation jazz musicians and vocalists with new music composed by Ani DiFranco, Graham Haynes, and others. Sundiata says, "Living in the aftermath of 911, I feel an urgent and renewed engagement with what it means to be an American. But that engagement is a troubling one because of a longstanding estrangement between American civic ideals and American civic practice. This project is my response to this reality. I take it as a civic responsibility to think about these things out loud, in the ritualized forum of theater and public dialogue."
The work, which grew in part out of Sundiata's 2003 Ann Arbor residency and through sustained relationships with members of the U-M community and Detroit-based partners, unites art and civic dialogue through songs, poems, monologues, and video. The 51st (dream) state explores how America defines itself in a new era characterized by unprecedented global influence and power, and what it means to be both a citizen and an individual in a deeply complex, hyper-kinetic society.
Co-presented with the U-M Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives. Media Partners Michigan ChronicleFront Page and WEMU 89.1 FM.
Main Floor $34 $30 $22 $18 Balcony $30 $26 $22 $18
Photo: Hubbard Street Dance Company in Tabula Rasa (by Todd Rosenberg)
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Jim Vincent artistic director TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 8 PM Power Center
One of America's favorite companies, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago presents sophisticated work by both American and international choreographers. The company's unconventional and innovative repertory by choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Nacho Duato, Lar Lubovitch, and William Forsythe breaks down preconceptions about dance by juxtaposing pieces from a variety of dance traditions and genres. The result An engaging, seductive, human, and often edgy performance that inspires audiences to think -but also to have fun.
Sponsored by Q ? g, QF ARBQR
Funded in part by the Performing Arts Fund. Media Partner Metro Times.
Main Floor $48 $44 $32 $26 Balcony $44 $38 $32 $20
Photo: Jonathan Jaffe from Stephen Petronio Company (by Sarah
Stephen Petronio Co
Stephen Petronio artistic director Music by Rufus Wainwright FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 8 PM SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 8 PM
Power Center
New music, visual art, and fashion collide in Stephen Petronio's dances, producing powerfully modern landscapes for the senses. This UMS debut features the company in a major new dance, BLOOM, set to the music of singersongwriter Rufus Wainwright. In BLOOM and its predecessor Bud Suite, Petronio moves away from the organized chaos of reckless-looking movement and explores the openness and purity of youth, the bittersweet poignancy of transformation. "The most appealing thing about Stephen Petronio's choreography has always been its raw New York energy...Petronio taps into the mania of the downtown New York scene." {The Times, London)
PROGRAM
Bud Suite
BLOOM
TBA
Funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts. Media Partners Metro Times and Detroit Jewish News.
Main Floor $40 $38 $28 $22 Balcony $38 $34 $28 $18
Photo: Tamango's Urban Tap (by Sarah Silver)
Say Mo Bilo (Give Me Water)
Tamango's Urban Tap
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 8 PM Michigan Theater
A master tap artist and major force in the downtown New York scene, performing at underground clubs for the past 15 years, Tamango has shared the stage with such dance legends as Gregory Hines, Jimmy Slyde, Buster Brown, and Savion Glover. He incorporates a unique blend of jazz tap and Afro-Caribbean dance as his signature style, and his revolutionary approach to tap transforms the dance into music with a sharpened sense of style and awe-inspiring fluidity. For this new production, he brings together dancers and musicians from his native French Guiana, as well as Haiti, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, and France, in an exploration of the rhythms and culture of his Creole heritage. Through rhythm, Tamango reaches deep into the mythology throughout this territory, creating an environment where stories are both sheltered and shared.
Funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts.
Media Partners WEMU 89.1 FM, Metro Times and Michigan ChronicleFront Page.
Main Floor $36 $34 $22 $18 Balcony $32 $26 $22 $18
Photo: Trinity Irish Dance Company (by Lois Greenfield)
Trinity Irish Dance Company
Mark Howard artistic director FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 8 PM SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 8 PM
Power Center
Chicago's Trinity Irish Dance Company was the birthplace of progressive Irish dance in America. Trinity dancers range in age from 18 to 28, and their years of rigorous training are evident in every perfectly paced spin, leap, and click, making them a lethal powerhouse of speed and sound. Artistic director Mark Howard has taken the group outside of the framework of ethnicity, expanding the company's range and repertoire in imaginative new directions, always performed to live music.
Sponsored by (yiffifb
Supported in part by Robert and Pearson Macek Funded in part by the Performing Arts Fund. Media Partners Metro Times and WEMU 89.1 FM.
Main Floor $40 $38 $28 $22 Balcony $38 $34 $28 $18
Photo: Stephen Petronio Company (by Chris Woltmann)
How To Order Tickets
Subscription Tickets On Sale Now!
Tickets to individual events go on sale Monday, August 21.
Dance Series
Includes Martha Graham, Hubbard Street, Stephen Petronio, Tamango's Urban Tap, and Trinity.
$190 $170 $150 $120 $90 $70
Theater Series
Includes all three RSC titles.
Ticket availability is very limited. Please call the UMS Ticket Office at 734-764-2538 for more information.
Monogram Series
Includes all Dance series events and Ballet Folklorico, Silver River, and Sekou Sundiata. Choose at least five events from the Monogram series and take 10 off the total price. Orders must be received before Friday, August 18.
Hours
10 am to 5 pm Monday-Friday Closed Saturday and Sunday Extended hours resume after Labor Day
Phone
With Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express
734-764-2538
Outside the 734 area code and within Michigan, call toll-free 800-221-1229. There is a $8 service charge for all subscription orders.
Internet
www.ums.org
In Person
Please visit the Ticket Office on the north end of the Michigan League building (911 North University Avenue). The Ticket Office also sells tickets for all U-M School of Music productions and the Ann Arbor Summer Festival.
Fax
734-647-1171
Mail
UMS Ticket Office Burton Memorial Tower 881 North University Avenue Ann Arbor, Ml 48109-1011
Group Sales
Groups of 10 or more can save 15-25 off the regular ticket price of most performances. For more information, call the UMS Group Sales Hotline at 734-763-3100. UMS is now accepting group reservations.
Subscription tickets will be mailed in mid-August.
All sales are final. Refunds are available only when an event is canceled or rescheduled. Programs and artists are subject to change without notice.