March 17, 2022
For immediate release:
Media Contact:
Megan Bommarito; 512.232.5328; megan.bommarito@austin.utexas.edu
Images available: https://tinyurl.com/4dbysjfh
Password: media
Video available: vimeo.com/texastheatredance
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND DANCE
PRESENTS
PIVOT
April 6-10, 2022
AT THE B. IDEN PAYNE THEATRE
Dance Repertory Theatre returns to the stage at Texas Theatre and Dance April 6-10, 2022 in a celebration of new choreographic works that speak to our collective resilience, adaptability and lived experience during the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the artistic direction of Charles O. Anderson ((Re)current Unrest, Dance Theatre X), Dorothy O’Shea Overbey (Red Nightfall Productions) and Quilan “Cue” Arnold (cue4christ.com) with producing artistic direction by Erica Gionfriddo (ARCOS), PIVOT features work by renowned faculty and student choreographers.
“Of all the words and phrases that will be indelibly linked to the pandemic…none have come to define the massive social change of this era like ‘pivot,’” share co-artistic directors Charles O. Anderson, Dorothy O’Shea Overbey and Quilan “Cue” Arnold. “To some people this word is insidious…to others it’s a mere nuisance…whatever you make of it, the word is one that will define our lives and the challenges we face long after the pandemic is over. Our intention with this concert is to embrace and accept that change is constant and adaptation is a requisite skill, [endeavoring] to honor and preserve those traditions and practices that continue to sustain us, even if the ‘how’ they sustain evolves.”
Highlights of PIVOT include Dorothy O’Shea Overbey’s A Million Alien Gospels, supported in part by Planet Texas 2050 (Part of the Bridging Barriers initiative, Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors at The University of Texas at Austin). Loosely inspired by a poem by Alice Meynell, the ballet presents an allegorical tale of humanity and its troubled relationship with planet Earth. Dancers representing the four elements (Earth, Water, Air and Fire) present the main character, Alice, with the gift of Earth and all its blessings. Alice, caught in a web of her own compulsiveness and self-absorption, exploits and manipulates her gift, draining its power and endangering its existence. The four elements then rescind the gift and Alice is left empty and desolate, facing a choice between despair and transformation. The premiere of A Million Alien Gospels will be presented by Ventana Ballet in June, 2022.
Other highlights include Quilan “Cue”Arnold’s Club KINGDOM, which focuses on a communal conjuring into the realm of the beyond, a revisiting of a viral pandemic and the tension that exists between the beyond and the biological realities of life; Sawubona, choreographed by Ryan K. Johnson, dedicated to those known and unknown who originally occupied this land; Let Them See by Love Muwwakkil which serves as a meditation of freedom – an acknowledgement, a complication, a grappling and a love all at once; and Of Mutants and Madmen, choreographed by Charles O. Anderson. Inspired by the words of Antonio Gramsci, “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters,” Of Mutants and Madmen reimagines the Isle of Sycorax where Shakespeare’s The Tempest takes place.
For more information on PIVOT please visit JoinTheDrama.org
CALENDAR LISTING
April 6-10, 2022 – The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance presents PIVOT at the B. Iden Payne Theatre (300 E. 23rd St.), located in the F. Loren Winship Drama Building. A map of the campus:
theatredance.utexas.edu/about/location-directions-parking
Performance times are April 6 (PREVIEW) at 7:30 p.m., April 7-9 at 7:30 p.m. and April 9-10 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets for preview are $10 for adults and $5 for students (with proof of ID); all other performances are $26 adult, $21 UT faculty and staff, $15 student and are available for sale at JoinTheDrama.org, or at the F. Loren Winship Box Office beginning one hour prior to performances. Office locations and hours: theatredance.utexas.edu/ticketing
ABOUT TEXAS THEATRE AND DANCE
The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance is a world-class educational environment that serves as the ultimate creative incubator for the next generation of artists, thinkers and leaders in theatre and performance.
ALSO THIS SEASON
Love and Information
By Caryl Churchill
April 13-24, 2022
Oscar G. Brockett Theatre
###