Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, Bread and Puppet Theater Play Bryn Mawr College, Sept 2012

The 2012-2013 season of the Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series opens in September with new works by the Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble and Bread and Puppet Theater. One explores a rich mix of cultures through music and dance, and the other reflects contemporary issues through theater and puppetry.

On Friday, September 14, Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemblewill present a first glimpse of newly-commissioned choreography from MacArthur genius Mark Morris. Combining the strengths of ballet with the vigor of youth, the Voloshky style is bold, powerful and dazzles with athleticism. The piece will be set to Camille Saint-Saën’s Carnival of the Animals and features thirty-five dancers from the Ukraine and U.S. with Voloshky’s live orchestra. This commission will be the first non-traditional dance in Voloshky’s repertoire.

“Art is Not Business! Art Is Food! Art Soothes Pain! Art Wakes Up Sleepers! Art Is Cheap! Hurrah!” proclaims Bread and Puppet’s Cheap Art Manifesto. The legendary activist theater company returns September 28-30 with two productions: The Complete Everything Everywhere Cabaret and the 2012 edition of the group’s family-friendly The Circus of the Possibilitarians accompanied by the B&P Circus Band and full of “animals of all kinds.” The company’s work features giant puppets, storytellers and stilt dancers who deliver a unique distillation of political issues, reflections on daily life and sheer silliness.

Bryn Mawr’s Campus is located at 101 N. Merion Ave. Tickets to individual events in the Bryn Mawr Performing Arts Series are $20, $18 for seniors, $10 for students with ID and Dance Pass holders, and $5 for children under 12. Circus will be presented outdoors free of charge. Tickets and more information are available online at brynmawr.edu/arts/series.html or by calling 610-526-5210.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble
with Choreography by Mark Morris
Friday, September 14 at 8 p.m.
McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall.

Bread and Puppet Theater
The Complete Everything Everywhere Cabaret
Friday, September 28 and Saturday, September 29 at 8 p.m. / Appropriate for ages 12 and up
Hepburn Teaching Theater

The Circus of the Possibilitarians
Sunday, September 30 at 2 p.m. / Appropriate for all ages
Outdoors: Thomas Great Hall Cloisters (in case of rain: McPherson Auditorium).

Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble represents Ukrainian culture through dance. Voloshky’s uniqueblend of styles has positioned the company as a leading cultural ambassador, simultaneously representing Ukrainian arts as well as the rich dynamic pluralism of the United States. Voloshky is dedicated to fostering and promoting cultural exchanges between Ukrainians and the global community through world–class artistic performances. As a Ukrainian Dance company founded in the United States, Voloshky combines Ukrainian and American esthetics, drawing upon classical, contemporary and folkloric styles to create powerful trans-cultural programs that cross-pollinate diverse audiences.

Voloshky partners with leading professional dance companies in Ukraine and the United States and has been generously supported by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Dance/USA Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour (PennPAT). Most recently Voloshky was awarded a grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance to commission world-renowned choreographer Mark Morris to create a new contemporary work, now premiering in its 40th anniversary season.

Mark Morris was born on August 29, 1956, in Seattle, Washington, where he studied with Verla Flowers and Perry Brunson. In the early years of his career, he performed with the dance companies of Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn, Laura Dean, Eliot Feld and the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble. He formed the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980, and has since created more than 130 works for the company. From 1988-1991, Morris was Director of Dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the national opera house of Belgium. Among the works created during his time there were three evening-length dances: L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato; Dido and Aeneas; and The Hard Nut. In 1990, he founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov.

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