music for dance – aszure barton’s “untouched”

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Using music by saxophonist and composer Curtis Macdonald; pianist and musical director Njo Kong Kie; and Russian-born violist Lev “Ljova” Zhurbi, the illustrious choreographer Aszure Barton has collaborated with each dancer independently and built a shared vocabulary for the ensemble based on these personal interactions. Inspired by collaboration, Barton is interested in creating dense environments on stage in which each performer is an individual and all are united by a shared language. Barton’s new work, Untouched, will receive its world premiere at the Harris Theater June 3-6, 2010. Tickets and more information here.

From Time Out Chicago:

“In between the two is Barton’s Untouched, a world premiere. Like Bardo, it’s for twelve dancers and moodily-lit. Otherwise, it’s from the other side of the universe. Its decor (uncredited) is lit (by Nicole Pearce) such that it appears we are looking onto a stage through its back wall. A heavy red curtain hangs, just partly opened, upstage. The floor is lit by shafts of light from beyond this curtain. There’s the sense another house, another audience, is back there sitting quietly, with only a small window onto the action we see clearly, thus, the work is our secret. On top of that atmosphere, Barton builds a world of bodily language suggesting rapidly-shifting power structures lightly dusted with the folkloric. The ambiguity of the work’s title echoes in your head as you watch: They’re immaculate. They’re virgin. They’re alone, above, below. They’ve yet to be experienced. It’s somehow about dancers. It features beautiful ideas about how and when dancers can enter and exit the stage. Its closing duet is spellbinding.”

“I can’t describe it.”

Other reviews:
Chicago Sun Times
Gapers Block Chicago

sound design for dance

Last summer at the Banff Centre for the Arts, I met a brilliant choreographer Aszure Barton.  I was blown away when I first saw company in rehearsal and was fortunate enough to sneak into her Ballet commissioned by the NBOC (The National Ballet of Canada) in Toronto.  This past weekend she asked me for some help with the sound editing and design for her recent premiere at The Juilliard School and her current European Tour.  I saw the performance on opening night and was so glad to have been able to contribute to the production.

After now having seen a handful of her work, I am particularly inspired by how she employs counterpoint – her content is  so compositional and ripe with richness.  If you have the opportunity to catch a performance of hers, it will certainly not disappoint.  I look forward to next time already, and I have something new to study for it’s compositional content – choreology!

Here’s a little sample of her work with her company, a piece that I saw them work on intensively and worked on the touring production, it’s an excerpt of “Busk”.