{"id":5769,"date":"2017-02-08T18:54:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T18:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/?p=5769"},"modified":"2020-06-17T19:25:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T23:25:55","slug":"balletx-winter-series-2017-program-notes-lisa-kraus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/balletx-winter-series-2017-program-notes-lisa-kraus\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Kraus on Winter Series 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

How many celebrated choreographers are also playwrights and theater directors who stage powerful productions of Ibsen? Or creators of puppet theater? Or artists whose physical theater humorously incorporates nonsense language? Just one choreographer is all those things\u2014Jo Str\u00f8mgren, whose newly-commissioned work, The Letter,<\/em> is featured in this Winter Series. Str\u00f8mgren says that working in so many mediums runs contrary to the usual way<\/em> of building a career. That, according to him, is \u201cto stick to your style and make sure people know what your trademark is.\u201d But he says doing that would mean \u201cmissing out on a lot of fun!\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though he trained in classical dance in his native Norway and he has made ballets for many companies including the famed Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, Str\u00f8mgren doesn\u2019t want the limitation of creating work based on one technique. Instead, he observes that in just one section of his new work,<\/em> you can see \u201ca bit of salsa, a bit of jazz, classical.\u201d He also finds \u201csomething tribal about it.\u201d Directing the BalletX dancers, he speaks softly, his shoulders hunched with concentration and tall frame gawky as he demonstrates fresh moves. The act of making is <\/em>serious fun, and the sections being worked on are full of quick and unpredictable changes: A crisp line of dancers morphs into a chaotic morass. Intricate partnering freezes in neo-classical shapes. Str\u00f8mgren lets every part of his dance knowledge bubble up, allowing viewers a wide range of associations.<\/p>\n

Christine Cox, BalletX\u2019s Artistic and Executive Director, asked Str\u00f8mgren if he\u2019d use his eye as an \u201coutsider\u201d to make a piece on current American themes. He had long collected American folk music, but never had a chance to work with it, so that music became his starting place. Eventually he narrowed in, gravitating to the blues. The Letter<\/em> features four songs by Josh White, the late folk-blues innovator and activist, and two by C W Stoneking, an Australian with American parentage who absorbed early blues stylings and created original material from that legacy. Str\u00f8mgren says \u201cthe main rule was to use that kind of music and do choreography that\u2019s contemporary, that doesn\u2019t play along with the music, but to see if those two can merge together and create a new sense of cool.\u201d Two more elements layer into The Letter<\/em>: costumes modelled on Norwegian black metal band fan outfits and \u201cand a voiceover text with a letter, hence the title of the show,\u201d according to Str\u00f8mgren.<\/p>\n

Selecting music to use as a dance\u2019s backbone is something that Matthew Neenan does often. His Credo<\/em> was inspired by Kevin Put\u2019s eponymous composition, and makes use of Haydn selections as well. Neenan\u2019s travels in India last winter also provided creative stimulus for the work. When shown at the Vail International Festival last summer the New York Times found it notable for Neenan\u2019s \u201cintriguing voice.\u201d The fresh choreographic voice of R. Colby Damon is featured on the program as well. Damon, a former BalletX dancer, created On the Mysterious Properties of Light<\/em> as his first company commission. He reflects on scientific properties of light through movement and spoken text, and aims to convey just how beautiful light can be. As with Neenan, knowing the BalletX dancers so very well means Damon can both challenge them and bring out their dazzling strengths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read about BalletX’s Winter Series 2017 from dance writer Lisa Kraus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[215,218],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behind-the-ballet","category-program-notes"],"acf":[],"cp_meta_data":{"_edit_lock":["1592517713:5"],"_edit_last":["5"],"slide_template":["default"],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["30"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":["218"],"filter_category":[""],"_filter_category":["field_575000bf40f4b"],"show_donate_baletx_banner":["0"],"_show_donate_baletx_banner":["field_573341c2d686c"],"show_slider_revolution":["0"],"_show_slider_revolution":["field_578755a04f37f"],"slider_revolution_short-code":[""],"_slider_revolution_short-code":["field_578752fb40ad0"],"top_show_dates":[""],"_top_show_dates":["field_576bb0c8af8e4"],"show_dates_period":[""],"_show_dates_period":["field_576bb0c8afcb8"],"numbers_of_premiers":[""],"_numbers_of_premiers":["field_576bb0c8b00d5"],"show_choreographers":[""],"_show_choreographers":["field_576bb0c8b0475"],"page_show_dancers_all":[""],"_page_show_dancers_all":["field_576bb0c8b0848"],"show_schedule_title":[""],"_show_schedule_title":["field_576bb0c8b0fe4"],"show_sidebar_rows":[""],"_show_sidebar_rows":["field_576bb0c8b1375"],"show_sidebar_tickets_title":[""],"_show_sidebar_tickets_title":["field_576bb0c8b1745"],"show_sidebar_tickets_description":[""],"_show_sidebar_tickets_description":["field_576bb0c8b1b34"],"show_sidebar_tickets_link":[""],"_show_sidebar_tickets_link":["field_576bb0c8b1ee1"],"show_sidebar_video_title":[""],"_show_sidebar_video_title":["field_576bb0c8b22b7"],"show_sidebar_video_link":[""],"_show_sidebar_video_link":["field_576bb0c8b2684"],"show_colaborators_section_title":[""],"_show_colaborators_section_title":["field_57767382e42fa"],"show_colaborators_cart":[""],"_show_colaborators_cart":["field_576bb0c8b2e6f"],"show_sponsors_section_title":[""],"_show_sponsors_section_title":["field_57767127e4dee"],"show_mobile_sponsors_carousel":[""],"_show_mobile_sponsors_carousel":["field_576bb0c8b35ed"],"show_this_event_as_featured":[""],"_show_this_event_as_featured":["field_5799c6d329b15"],"_thumbnail_id":["5733"],"_eael_post_view_count":["1392"],"_elementor_page_assets":["a:0:{}"]},"yoast_head":"\nLisa Kraus on Winter Series 2017 - BalletX<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/balletx-winter-series-2017-program-notes-lisa-kraus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lisa Kraus on Winter Series 2017 - BalletX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Read about BalletX's Winter Series 2017 from dance writer Lisa Kraus.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/balletx-winter-series-2017-program-notes-lisa-kraus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BalletX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-08T18:54:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-06-17T23:25:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GALLERY-Letter-Rehearsal-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1860\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1180\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BalletX\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BalletX\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/balletx-winter-series-2017-program-notes-lisa-kraus\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/balletx-winter-series-2017-program-notes-lisa-kraus\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BalletX\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/#\/schema\/person\/1b88f1b8b3220de1aa638e355a7901ea\"},\"headline\":\"Lisa Kraus on Winter Series 2017\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-08T18:54:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-17T23:25:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/balletx-winter-series-2017-program-notes-lisa-kraus\/\"},\"wordCount\":573,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/balletx-winter-series-2017-program-notes-lisa-kraus\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GALLERY-Letter-Rehearsal-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Behind the Ballet\",\"Program Notes\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/balletx-winter-series-2017-program-notes-lisa-kraus\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/balletx-winter-series-2017-program-notes-lisa-kraus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.balletx.org\/balletx-winter-series-2017-program-notes-lisa-kraus\/\",\"name\":\"Lisa Kraus on Winter Series 2017 - 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