Live From the Kennedy Center: BMDC presents Trois Rêves
Bowen McCauley Dance Company (BMDC), an award-winning contemporary dance company with a legacy of community engagement, announces its Virtual 25th Season Opening Performance on May 26, 2021 at 7:00PM. Performed live at the Kennedy Center and broadcast via free live web stream, the season opener features three pieces that demonstrate the range of Artistic Director Lucy Bowen McCauley’s choreographic work: “Trois Rêves,” “Dances of the Yogurt Maker,” and “Far Behind.”
The long awaited one-night performance was previously set for March 2020, but was rescheduled twice due to COVID-19. Bowen McCauley was determined to premiere the work before retiring at the end of this 25th season, demonstrating the resilience of this DC Metro area Company, and her commitment to new work. The evening will begin with a pre-show toast and introduction with Bowen McCauley and Music Director, Nikola Paskalov, sharing their insights and thoughts on the works.
The world premiere of “Trois Rêves” set to Maurice Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit for piano and played live by pianist Nikola Paskalov, features seven Company dancers portraying three dream sequences that will make audiences swoon, tense, lean-in, and laugh. An example of art reflecting the times, “Trois Rêves” has been choreographed with COVID-19 restrictions in mind. There is no partnering, and the dancers maintain safe physical distancing, with graceful sweeping movements that only a Ravel composition could deliver. “Not being able to partner or touch at all helps push me a dramatic way. “Trois Rêves” looks unlike any piece I have ever done,” said Lucy Bowen McCauley.
The show will open with “Dances of the Yogurt Maker,” choreographed by Lucy Bowen McCauley with music by Turkish Composer Erberk Eryilmaz. The first-ever collaboration between these two award-winning artists was commissioned by the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra in March 2019.
The second piece will take a look back and honor two longtime BMDC principal dancers, Alicia Curtis and Dustin Kimball, with a screening of the filmed version of “Far Behind” set to live music by Jason and The Scorchers. Curtis and Kimball have been principal dancers at BMDC for 14 and 15 seasons, respectively. The full-length production, “Victory Road,” premiered at the Kennedy Center in April 2015.
The Kennedy Center performance comes on the heels of a successful Season Kickoff retrospective screening of the March 2012 performance of “Le Sacre du Printemps.” Two hundred members of the BMDC community gathered virtually to reminisce with choreographer Lucy Bowen McCauley, principal dancers Alicia Curtis and Dustin Kimball, and original cast members Alvaro Palau and Antoine Lee in a pre-show zoom conversation, followed by the performance.
For further information visit: http://www.bmdc.org/