Striking a pose: the new Warhol piece by Jennifer Muller at a studio preview
Tuesday November 17th, 2015 – Choreographer Jennifer Muller has been commissioned to create a new dancework for Introdans, the Netherlands-based contemporary dance company. The piece will premiere in February, 2016 on a program entitled Absolutely Amerika. This evening, at her studio on West 24th Street, Ms. Muller presented a sampling of this latest work, along with excerpts from some of the more recent additions to her Company’s repertoire.
The room was packed with Muller friends and fans, and her lively and distinctive troupe of dancers seemed to ignore the fact that this was a studio showing, instead dancing at performance level. The dance-space is limited but the choreography is spacious and often fast-paced; yet the dancers moved with abandon, often coming within centimeters of the viewers – or of the ceiling, during the many lifts that the Muller repertory calls for.
Two excerpts from FLOWERS were offered before dancer Michael Tomlinson (above, warming up) demonstrated a signature motif from the new work, which is inspired by quotes from the late Andy Warhol and is danced to a collage of music associated with the Warhol era.
Above: the opening of MISERERE NOBIS
I was particularly glad of another opportunity to see some passages from Jennifer’s 2014 masterpiece, MISERERE NOBIS, a compelling piece that has lingered in my mind since first encountering it. Originally danced by an all-female cast, Jennifer has now incorporated the Company’s men into this ritualistic work which is danced to Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, which was inspired by Allegri’s immortal Miserere. The choreographer’s addition of men to the cast changed the flavor of the work slightly but didn’t diminish its power and beauty in the least.
The evening closed with excerpts from ALCHEMY, an exciting multi-media piece which Ms. Muller premiered at New York Live Arts earlier this year.
The dancers were moving too fast most of the time for my camera to catch them, however here are a few images I was able to capture:
Brittney Bembry, Michelle Tara Lynch
Brittney Bembry
Shiho Tanaka
From MISERERE NOBIS
Seiko Fujita
Alexandre Balmain, Elise King
Sonja Chung
MISERERE NOBIS
Jennifer Muller, ever the perfect hostess
Jennifer Muller/The Works will be at New York Live Arts June 13th – 18th, 2016.
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