Thursday, June 26, 2014 – Saturday, June 28, 2014, 8:00 PM
St. Mark’s Church
131 E 10th St, New York, NY 10003
Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance will present Darkness, Shadows, Silence in its New York season Thursday, June 26 through Saturday, June 28 at Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, as part of the DANCE: Access incentive. The program, featuring four works over three nights, will include the world premiere of RU, a new, contemporary ballet conceived and directed by Cherylyn Lavagnino in collaboration with composer Scott Killian.
RU, inspired by a novel of the same name and written by Kim Thúy, describes a young woman’s life as a post-Vietnam War political refugee. The emotional tone of the dance draws from cultural dislocation and the struggle for identity. T’ai Chi’s passive resistance serves as gestural influence to support the movement vocabulary. The dancers, in costumes reminiscent of the traditional Vietnamese áo dài dress, move inside a shadowy landscape, their movement suggestive of contrasts between struggle and grace, stoicism and despair.
According to Ms. Lavagnino, “I’ve created this work as a response to the plight of refugees. After watching the daily news of the struggles of the Syrians and Ethiopians, and then reading this profoundly disturbing book, I felt a sense of responsibility – I wanted to create a dance to express the sadness I felt for these people separated from their families and homeland.”
For more information about the event, please visit:
https://web.ovationtix.com/