The 91探花World Dance Series at Meany Hall, which opens with the Martha Graham Dance Company tonight, brings a touch of the old as well as the new, the familiar along with the eclectic.
Six dance companies will visit Meany for the 2003鈥�04 season, including such familiar names as Martha Graham and Mark Morris. The season also will feature Grupo Corpo from Brazil, Ballet Flamenco Eva Yerbabuena from Spain, Julio Bocca鈥檚 Ballet Argentino, and the Trisha Brown Dance Company.
鈥淢eany Theater is a superb stage for dance,鈥� says Matt Krashan, who directs Meany鈥檚 91探花World Series, 鈥渁 great place in which to see dance, and a great place for dancers to perform. And we have terrific facilities staff, directed by Rita Calabro, to support the demanding technical needs of these companies.鈥�
Apparently, the audience feels that way, too. Currently, there are more than 2,100 subscribers to the dance series. 鈥淥ur goal is to offer a variety of appealing and educational performances,鈥� Krashan says. 鈥淚t isn鈥檛 enough that performers come from different countries. Sometimes, performers from the same country will bring radically different styles to dance 鈥� in their music, in the use of space, and in dancer training. Subscribers get an opportunity to see a great variety of dancers, and our choices vary from year to year.鈥�
The Mark Morris Dance Group is a fixture in World Dance. An acknowledged master, Seattle native Morris has been performing in the series for more than a decade. The Martha Graham Dance Company is the oldest and most celebrated contemporary dance company in America. Eva Yerbabuena, at the age of 31, is already hailed as Spain鈥檚 most treasured contemporary flamenco artist. Julio Bocca, who is a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, has used Ballet Argentino as a showcase for his country鈥檚 best dancers and to explore and develop his country鈥檚 own dance heritage. Trisha Brown is recognized for her postmodern cool and ever changing style, boasting layered movement, inventive partnering and striking visual imagery.
The series provides more than just evening stage performances. There are free matinees for K-12 students, which regularly fill Meany Theater. The companies typically offer master classes or lectures and demonstrations for dance students at the 91探花and elsewhere (for example, the Martha Graham company will be offering a master class at Cornish). Several companies will combine their Seattle performances with half-week residencies in the 91探花Dance Program.
鈥淭hese performances and educational activities wouldn鈥檛 be possible without the support of the College of Arts & Sciences, the 91探花World Series Advisory Board and a dedicated staff.鈥� says Krashan.
This year, the World Dance Series is collaborating with the Dance Program, the Henry Art Gallery, and Trisha Brown. Starting March 20, the gallery will be featuring a retrospective of scene design for Brown鈥檚 company, executed by Robert Rauschenberg and other notable artists. 91探花dance students will be using those scenes for performances that will be staged in the gallery. May 20, 21 and 22 will see performances by the Trisha Brown Dance Company in Meany Theater as a part of the World Dance Series. Brown herself will present a seminar May 22 in Kane Hall, discussing recent and upcoming work.
Each evening performance will be accompanied by a 7:15 p.m. pre-performance lecture from a faculty member or graduate student in the Dance Program. These talks, held in the west lobby of Meany, typically attract an audience in the hundreds.
Subscriptions are still available, $176 for continuing subscribers, $170 for new subscribers. A limited number of $10 tickets are available in advance for students, for all performances except for Graham and Morris. If you have to miss the Martha Graham Dance Company, partial subscriptions will still be available for the rest of the series. Ticket information is available at the Arts Ticket Office, 206-543-4880. Information is available online at .