Out In The Mountains : Arts & Entertainment

New York choreographer/dancer Doug Varone has been described as “that rare choreographer with a gift for expressing emotion through dance. He has a company of daredevils, profoundly human super humans who dance on a dime – wheeling, darting and slicing the air at lethal looking speeds.”

In February, Doug Varone and Dancers will present an evening of emotionally gripping and highly physical work, including both the new Sleeping with Giants as well as signature works from the company’s repertory. It’s a perfect next step in Burlington’s Flynn Theatre’s ambitious dance season, which has seen everyone from the Moscow City Ballet to Australia’s Tap Dogs.

Sleeping with Giants, about a man no longer capable of moving as fast as the world moves, is set to Michael Nyman’s Harpsichord Concerto. Nyman is the well-known composer of film scores for The Piano and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, as well as other Peter Greenaway films. During the development of this piece, Varone experimented with movement vocabularies and choreographic structures inspired by filmmaking and script-writing.

Rounding out the evening’s performance are Varone’s signature piece, Rise, a swirling energetic quartet set to John Adam’s Fearful Symmetry from 1993, and 1998’s Bel Canto, a hilarious, exuberant send-up of Bellini’s opera Norma.

Preceding the arrival of the company, the Flynn is presenting a free dance lecture series: Inside Dance with Suzanne Carbonneau. Carbonneau is the dance critic for the Washington Post, and a recognized dance scholar. On Wednesday, February 2, she provides a video-illustrated overview of Western dance from ballet to postmodernism. The next evening’s discussion is on “narrative and abstraction” – exploring the concept of dance as a language that can exist in a range from literal gesture to abstract evocation.

In addition to the Saturday performance, the Flynn will present a master class with members of Doug Varone and Dancers on Friday, February 4 at the UVM Dance Studio. The class, for intermediate and advanced dancers, will explore repertory, composition, and improvisation.

Finally, there will be a free pre-performance lecture/discussion with Doug Varone and Suzanne Carbonneau, Saturday, February 5, at 6:30pm at the Flynn Gallery. They will discuss the creative process, and Carbonneau will provide an overview of Varone’s work.

Doug Varone and Dancers
Flynn Theatre, Burlington
February 5, 2000

Inside Dance with Suzanne Carbonneau
Fletcher Free Library, Burlington
February 2-3, 2000

Varone/Carbonneau lecture/discussion
Flynn Gallery, Burlington
February 5, 2000

Master class with members of Doug Varone and Dancers
Flynn Gallery
Feburary 4, 2000