Performance Spaces for the 21st Century presents the Maryland-based dance company PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER on Friday and Saturday, August 16 and 17, at 8 pm as part of PS21’s 2013 comedy-themed season. Artistic directors Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig have gained an international following for creating and presenting “American dance theater at its funniest and most compelling.” (Neue ZŸrcher Zeitung, Switzerland). The Tent at PS21 is located at 2980 Route 66 in Chatham, NY.
“We will be performing three pieces each evening: Ordinary Festivals, Oashisu and Season of No Regrets. Audiences can expect an ultimately uplifting but not necessarily easy-going experience,” explained Sara Pearson. “We ask that each person be open to discovering something that they didn’t know about themselves or the world before. We don’t present something narrow and specific that the audience is supposed to ‘get’ and that is the same for each person. Instead, we are interested in their personal response to entering into the unique world of each of our works.”
Ordinary Festivals is PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER’s best known work. It has been seen by over 25,000 people on three continents since 1995, including the City Center Fall for Dance Festival, the Kennedy Center, the Joyce Theater, Central Park SummerStage, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors as well as in South America, Switzerland and the U.K. Set to the enchanting folk music of pre-war Italy, Ordinary Festivals is a piece for 300 oranges, seven performers, and two knives that “pushes the rituals of a traditional community over the edge into mysterious, subversive and often funny acts,” – The Village Voice.
Oashisu is a subtle meditation on continual tectonic shifts, seismic surprises and deep calm set to the original music for Japanese instruments by James Nyoraku Schlefer. The piece explores the Japanese concepts of “ma” (a creative space in which the essence of artistic relationships are made tangible) and “kansha” (simultaneous gratitude and appreciation).
A Season of No Regrets is an exuberant celebration set to the original live music of David Schulman recently performed at the Kennedy Center. A Season of No Regrets will have its international premiere at the Open Look Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, in June 2014.
Admission is $30 general admission, $25 for members and $18 for students. For information or to order tickets, please call 518-392-6121 or visit ps21chatham.org. Tickets will also be available at the door until the show sells out.
