The Golden Legend (2009) Dancers: 23 men & 2 movement choruses, Puppeteers: 5, Musicians: 10 | Duration: 150 minutes
A 13th century work by the blessed Jacobus de Voragine known as the Legenda Aurea Sanctorum (or Golden Legend of the Saints), which was probably the most widely read text other than the bible during its heyday, serves as inspiration for this work. Loosely following fantastical tales mentioned in the ancient text, the piece consists of portraits of 17 male saints performed by corporeally and ethnically diverse male dancers of many ages within the New York City dance community accompanied by appearances of two movement choruses and puppets by Eric Wright, Lake Simons, and Christopher Williams. Music for the work runs the gamut from extant medieval hymns, antiphons, laude, motets, and conductus from as early as the 11th century, written in praise of each saint, to original contemporary compositions by composers Peter Kirn and Gregory Spears. Costumes for the work are by Carol Binion, Andy Jordan, Michael Oberle, Ciera Wells, and Christopher Williams. The lighting design is by Joe Levasseur, and the set is by Tom Lee.
The Portuguese Suite (2006) Dancers: 2 men, 7 women (chorus) | Duration: 40 minutes
The Portuguese Suite, is composed of nine dances all constructed in relation to both medieval love spells involving a particular herb or fruit considered by early herbalists to possess magical properties and a traditional Portuguese fado song recorded by the legendary Portuguese singer Amália Rodrigues. It is said that this particular style of singing known as fado or “fate” was born from the half singing, half weeping laments of the wives of sailors who set sail and left them alone on the mainland for long periods of time. These dances, for two ethnically diverse men and a chorus of seven carpideiras or"weeping women,"explore the broad emotional range from ecstatic to dolorous and from tender to dangerous within inter-cultural relationships between male lovers. Costumes by Carol Binion and set by John Bianchi.
Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins (2005) Dancers: 11 female soloists, 5 men (chorus), Musicians: 5 | Duration: 70 minutes
Inspired by the bizarre, fantastical, and often gory legends surrounding the martyrdom of eleven early Christian virgin saints, Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins consists of short solos for eleven women of differing ages and ethnicities set to music ranging from extant 12th century songs to newly commissioned original music by composer Peter Kirn for voice and an array of new and period instruments. Costumes by Michael Oberle and Christopher Williams.
Mandragora Vulgaris is a quartet for women clad in tall branching crowns and garments of tangled roots by Michael Oberle and Christopher Williams set to both natural insect sounds and Bulgarian folk songs. The work, which includes sprout-like hand-puppets, draws inspiration from medieval anthropomorphic legends of a plant thought to posses magical properties known as the mandrake root, or witches’ manikin, as well as from antique depictions of wild nymphs, amazons, and races of wild women.
Virgo Genitrix, a trio for three female dancers with puppets by Christopher Williams, loosely follows moments of the passions of the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Saint Mary the Egyptian, and is inspired by popular, occult, and apocryphal imagery of the triple goddess, the noble savage, and concepts familiar to early female desert ascetic saints such as mortification of the flesh, holy fasting, and virginity. The work includes mask, a pregnant woman, an entirely furry woman, as well as various puppets representing visions of bestial daemons, babies in utero, and an archangel. The dance is set to The Lay of the Fountain by 14th century composer Guillaume de Machaut. Costumes by Michael Oberle.
Morpho Ehemeroptera (1998) Dancers: 5 men | Duration: 7 minutes
Morpho Ephemeroptera, a quintet for male dancers, presupposes the existence of faeries as a supernatural hybrid between humans and flying insects. It is as if we witness the behavior of a heretofore unknown species in the wild, much like medieval men and women may have imagined when encountering stories of the “monstrous races” described by Pliny the Elder in his De Historia Naturalis. The work is set to naturally occurring bird and insect sounds and to the prayer, sygyt, sung in the Tuvan throat-singing style which in Mongolian culture serves to bridge the gap between this world and that of the divine.
Asshole (2007) Dancers: 3 | Duration: 1 minute
Asshole is an absurd trio for two people and a monstrous crab set to a piece of music of the same name that lasts only one minute long, originally made for the Vox Novus 60 X 60 Project which invites 60 choreographers to make and present 60 second dances.
Inspired by the simultaneously beautiful and deadly morphology found in marine creatures such as jellyfish and their relatives the sea anemones, along with the all too pervasive concept of sex as taboo, Cnidarian is a collaborative duet with choreographer Kindra Windish set to original electronic music by composer David Griffin.
Piedras, a multi-media collaboration with Colombian visual artist Rosario López, Colombian composer Ivan Jiménez, Colombian soprano Juanita Delgado, and American poet Rusty Morrison, combines dance, video animation, poetry, sculpture, and music. The work as a whole explores the dynamic relationship of the human body to the force of gravity and other inescapable external influences which we may dream of evading, but must ultimately obey.
Inspired by the strange, private world of mating rituals and other mysterious behavioral patterns of species whose males and females both urinate rearwards, Retromingent is a duet for a man and a woman clad in long backwards tails exploring intimate yet improbable and daring partnering. Costumes by Kindra Windish and Christopher Williams.
The Voyage of the Húi Corra (2008) Dancers: 17 | Duration: 15 minutes
Ultimately part of a cycle of works inspired by fabulous 6th and 7th century Irish adventure tales known as Immrama (“rowings about” or "voyaging") in which saints, heroes, or troubled men are often set adrift in boats with no oars and encounter strange, uncharted magical lands with curious inhabitants, The Voyage of the Húi Corra is a work for five men and a chorus of twelve women set to excerpts of the earliest complete polyphonic mass that has come down to us from the 14th century known as Le Messe de Tournai. Costumes by Ciera Courtney Wells, Carol Binion, and Christopher Williams.
Tír na nÓg, Land of the Young (2007) Dancers: 12, Musicians: 5 | Duration: 13 minutes
Inspired by various early Irish echtrae (or adventure tales) telling of a rare visits by the legendary heroes to paradisiacal roaming islands just beyond the known horizon (such as Tír na nÓg, or “the land of the ever young”), Tír na nÓg, Land of the Young is a work for 12 students set to original music by Gregory Spears for cello, celesta, electric organ, and exotic percussion. Costumes by Carol Binion and Christopher Williams.
