Featured News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – January 28, 2013
Spectrum 2012-2013 Season Update: Schedule change, venue confirmed
SEATTLE – Spectrum Dance Theater announces two major updates to its current season.
• New dates for Carmina Burana: Thursday-Saturday, June 6-8 & June 13-15, 2013
• Confirmed venue for remaining performances: Emerald City Trapeze Arts, 2702 6th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98134 (just off Airport Way in SoDo)
The current 2012-2013 season entitled BYRD AT 10 is a celebration of Artistic Director Donald Byrd’s 10th anniversary with Spectrum Dance Theater. Byrd recently renewed his contract with Spectrum through 2017.
Here is Spectrum’s performance schedule for the rest of the 2012-2013 season:
DanceMotion USA International Tour: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal
February-March 2013
Spectrum Dance Theater will tour Asia as part of the third season of DanceMotion USASM, a program of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). This vibrant cultural diplomacy program shares the rich dance culture of the United States with international audiences through performance and cultural exchange. More info at dancemotionusa.org
A Cruel New World/the new normal (2003)
VENUE: Emerald City Trapeze Arts, 2702 6th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98134
Thursday-Saturday, April 11-13, 2013
A Cruel New World/the new normal, Byrd’s take on the post-9/11 American landscape, was the first original work he choreographed for Spectrum Dance Theater as its new artistic director. This performance takes place on the 10th anniversary of its premiere.Promotional photos for A Cruel New World/the new normal are available upon request.
Washington Center for the Performing Arts, Residency and Performance
Washington Center, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia WA
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Spectrum will be the company in residence at the Washington Center, with a variety of public programs and workshops to culminate in a performance on May 18, 2013. This residency is an extension of Spectrum’s mission to bring contemporary dance to regional communities, a mission Donald Byrd views as fundamental to developing future audiences for contemporary dance by establishing relationships with regional presenters and venues beyond metropolitan Seattle. Past residencies have taken place in Ellensburg, the San Juan Islands, and Whidbey Island, WA. More info at washingtoncenter.org
Carmina Burana (1997)
VENUE: Emerald City Trapeze Arts, 2702 6th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98134
Thursday-Saturday, June 6-8 & June 13-15, 2013
*LIVE MUSIC
Donald Byrd originally choreographed and directed Carl Orff’s cantata as a large scale danced musical drama for New York City Opera. Spectrum Dance Theater presents it with Orff’s two piano and percussion arrangement with a reduced choir. This staging reconsiders the Carmina Burana as an intimate and personal journey of a righteous man’s crisis of faith.
Autopsy of Love (World Premiere)
VENUE: Emerald City Trapeze Arts, 2702 6th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98134
Thursdays-Saturdays, June 20-22 & June 27-29, 2013
*LIVE MUSIC
A new work being developed in conjunction with Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Lab. With Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe-settings of poet Heinrich Heine’sLyrisches Intermezzo - in its original 20 songs cycle leading the way, Byrd returns to matters of the heart. Leading Funder: The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
*All performances with live music are made possible by Spectrum Dance Theater’s Fund for Live Music.
Tickets for all performances are on sale. For tickets and information, visitspectrumdance.org.
###
ABOUT SPECTRUM DANCE THEATER
Spectrum Dance Theater was founded in Seattle, Washington, in 1982. Its mission is to produce and present contemporary dance of global caliber that challenges expectations and calls forth strong emotions and thoughtful responses; to provide expert dance instruction in diverse dance forms to all; and to educate the community about dance as an art form and as a social/civic instrument.
ABOUT DONALD BYRD
Donald Byrd became Artistic Director of Spectrum Dance Theater in December 2002. From 1978-2002, he was Artistic Director of Donald Byrd/The Group, a critically acclaimed contemporary dance company that toured extensively, both nationally and internationally. He has created more than 80 modern dance works for his own groups as well as for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, and The Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco), among others. He has choreographed for classical companies, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, Aterballetto, Maggio Danza diFirenze, and Oregon Ballet Theater. He has worked with some of the most prestigious theater and opera companies in the U.S., including The New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, San Francisco Opera, and New York City Opera. In 2005, Donald Byrd was honored by the Kennedy Center with a Master of Choreography Award, and in 2006, he received a TONY nomination for his choreography for The Color Purple. Most recently, Byrd was selected among the first group of Fellows to the American Academy in Jerusalem; and received a fellowship award from United States Artists.
