Lydia Johnson Dance in premieres at NYLA

Crossings by River. Photo by Kokyat.Lydia Johnson Dance will premiere two new works this week: one to music by Philip Glass and Marc Mellits, and the second to Trio Sonatas of Handel. The program will also feature company works set to the compositions of Osvaldo Golijov.

 

Joining the 13-member ensemble are guests Mary Beth Hansohn and Peter Chursin, recently seen on the Twyla Tharp Dance 50th Anniversary Tour. Performances are set for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, June 21, 22 and 23 at 7:30 p.m. at New York Live Arts, located at 219 West 19th Street. 

 

The premiere of Lydia Johnson’s Trio Sonatas promises a “masterfully crafted” work offering a joyous expression of the human spirit. Early excerpts were first presented in April when Johnson was invited to participate in the 92nd St. Y’s “Women Ballet Choreographers East and West.”

 

The season’s second premiere is set to a Marc Mellits piano piece and Etudes Book 2 #17 by Philip Glass. Guests Hansohn and Chursin will be featured in the new work, which includes an appearance by a child. Johnson has integrated children in a few previous dances, which inspired The New York Times writer Jennifer Dunning to remark: “Ms. Johnson also has a gift for integrating children unsentimentally into her dances, almost as added texture.”

 

Johnson’s 2015 work Giving Way, set to a cello and marimba duet by Osvaldo Golijov and an aggressive string octet by Marc Mellits, makes its return. Plus, the company will also repeat the 2012 Crossings by River, declared by Philip Gardner of Oberon’s Grove as a work that “carries on the great dance tradition of memorable works for female ensemble. It needs to be seen and savoured.”

 

For more information, visit www.lydiajohnsondance.org.

 

Photo: Lydia Johnson Dance in Crossings by River. Photo by Kokyat.