The newest dance from Armitage Gone! explores the universe.
Jacob’s Pillow Dance presents Armitage Gone! Dance in Three Theories, July 14-18, a new contemporary ballet work choreographed by Artistic Director Karole Armitage and inspired by physicist Brian Greene’s best-selling book The Elegant Universe. A former member of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Armitage has worked with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Merce Cunningham, and Madonna, and her dance repertoire ranges from ballet to a Tony Award nomination for the Broadway show, Hair.
“Karole is in the first rank of contemporary dancemakers internationally. Her new work, Three Theories, is a dynamic, full-throttle celebration of movement. The dancers in this company are among the best in the world – and they must be the best to deliver the smart, exacting, full-out dances Karole creates,” comments Pillow Executive Director Ella Baff.
A former member of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Armitage has worked with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Merce Cunningham, and Madonna, and her dance repertoire ranges from ballet to a Tony Award nomination for the Broadway show, Hair.
Applying theoretical physics and string theory to dance
Greene’s book The Elegant Universe details the inherent conflict between the two great pillars of modern theoretical physics, quantum mechanics and Einstein’s general theory of relativity. It ventures into the ideas emerging from attempts to resolve the conflict, particularly string theory. Using concepts specific to each theory as a springboard to generate inventive movement, Armitage has created a contemporary ballet work in three distinct sections. Each section, Relativity, Quantum, and String, is defined by its own dance structure and musical language. For Armitage, contemporary physics is replete with visual metaphor and she uses such principles as a means for exploring new possibilities in movement and spatial patterning.
A work for eleven dancers, Three Theories is set to a commissioned score by maverick composer Rhys Chatham, Sangeeta Shankar’s South Indian Classical Carnatic violin music, and John Luther Adams’s evocative “Dark Waves.” The dance features stark lighting design by longtime collaborator Clifton Taylor and costumes by Deanna Berg.
In the first section, Relativity, Armitage furthers her exploration of bending and twisting the vertical and horizontal lines of classical ballet, intricately weaving the dance into Shankar’s “Raga Jag, Vilambit Ektaal.” The seven-note scale of Carnatic music, where the use of tones and pitches produce “warping” sounds not present in Western tempered tunings, influences a recurring gestural language. Relativity is a serene dance, reflecting Einstein’s perception of the universe as a place of fundamental order.
Precarious duets, tangled groups
The second section is fueled by the description in quantum mechanics of the volatility of the universe. In response, Armitage has created four precarious, high-speed duets, set to Chatham’s driving original score for 100 massed guitars specifically tuned to produce micro-tones.
The last section draws from string theory, which maintains that the fundamental matter of the universe is a virtually infinitesimal vibrating string. Here, the choreography is shaped by morphing, tangled group formations that shift in response to individual contact. Set to Adams’s “Dark Waves,” the score “plays with the simple interval of the perfect fifth – the basic building block of harmony…to suggest a huge entity of indeterminate shape” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker).
Once described by Vanity Fair magazine as the “punk ballerina,” Karole Armitage began her career in 1973 as a member of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Switzerland—a company devoted at the time exclusively to the repertory of George Balanchine—and she later danced with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Throughout the ‘80s, she led her own New York-based company and in 1987, Rudolf Nureyev asked Armitage to create a work for Paris Opera Ballet. Its success led to many European commissions and in 1990 Armitage chose to maintain her company on a project basis to pursue work with major European ballet and opera companies.
She has created dances for numerous companies including the White Oak Dance Project, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Lyon Opera Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and most recently, Bern Ballet and Kansas City Ballet. She has directed operas from the baroque and contemporary repertoire for many of the prestigious houses of Europe including Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Lyric Opera in Athens, and Het Muzik Theater in Amsterdam.
She has worked on several feature films, including The Golden Bowl and The White Countess by filmmakers Merchant and Ivory and has choreographed for pop icons Madonna and Michael Jackson. Over the years Armitage has collaborated with a distinguished array of visual artists including Thomas Adès, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Jeff Koons, Christian Lacroix, David Salle, and Brice Marden.
In 2004, Armitage returned to New York and launched Armitage Gone! Dance in 2005. In 2009 she was nominated for a Best Choreography Tony Award for the Broadway hit Hair. Armitage Gone! Dance has performed in the Doris Duke Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow in 2006 and as part of a Jacob’s Pillow/MASS MoCA co-presentation in 2007.
Performance and Ticket Information
Ted Shawn Theatre
Wednesday, July 14 through Saturday, July 17 at 8pm
Saturday, July 17 and Sunday, July 18 at 2pm
Free Pre-Show Talks with Jacob’s Pillow Scholars-in-Residence are offered in Blake’s Barn 30 minutes before every performance. A Post-Show talk will take place after the performance on Thursday, July 15.
Tickets $58-63. On sale now online at jacobspillow.org, via phone at 413.243.0745 or in person at the Jacob’s Pillow Box Office.
Box Office hours: Monday through Friday, 10am-5pm.
Jacob’s Pillow is located at 358 George Carter Road in Becket, MA, 01223 (10 minutes east on Route 20 from Mass Pike Exit 2). The Jacob’s Pillow campus and theaters are handicapped-accessible.
