Photo Gallery & Repertory

1 Albinoni And 5 Women

1 Albinoni and 5 Women catalogues the stereotypes of women through the 20th century and watches 5 women as they rebel against the roles that have been placed upon them. Guest Choreographer: Ginger Thatcher. (5 dancers) Music by Tomaso Albinoni.

Alone

photo by Paul B. Goode

Alone is set to the haunting live music of musical saw performer Natalia Paruz and captures the desperation of an individual alone in the world. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. Composed by Scott Munson. (4 dancers, 1 musician) 13 minutes

Apposition

photo by Paul B. Goode

Photo by Paul B. Goode

Photo by Austin Hogan

Photo by Paul B. Goode

Apposition is set to the modern jazz percussion of Leon Parker. The traditionally lyrical forms of classical ballet are juxtaposed with playful, quicksilver, and staccato 20th Century music, taking ballet into a multicultural stream. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (5 dancers). Watch parts of Apposition. part 1 or part 2

The Beatitudes

photo by Megan Chorman

photo by Paul B. Goode

Set to poetry and music from the Beat Generation, The Beatitudes contemplates the post-war splintering of American values, and the birth of wild new ideas about what’s holy, sacred… Beat. Through the eyes of a two young lovers, one newly returned from the war, the other just out of college, we meet the ‘hep-cats’ and ‘gone-chicks’ of this new hip society, and watch as they alternately embrace and reject everything they have previously known, while striving to find a new America. Inspired by the prose of Jack Kerouac, the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, and jazz from such virtuoso composers and performers as Louis Jordan, David Amram, King Pleasure and Billie Holiday, The Beatitudes pays homage to one of the major 20th century threads in American literature, music, art and social consciousness, reminding us once again of just how far we have come. Story by Justin Allen. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (12 dancers) 30 minutes Watch excerpts of The Beatitudes. Visit The Beatitudes promotional website.

Billy's Red Socks

photo by Paul B. Goode

photo by Ben Gancsos

Billy’s Red Socks is a fun loving and playful contemporary ballet in a marriage with a musical stroke of inspiration. It is clumsy and hazardous, naïve and preposterous and created to the sounds of potato-mashers and children’s toys. Pascal Ayerbe’s found instruments and music set the backdrop to this ballet. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (9 dancers) 14:40 minutes. See excerpts of Billy's Red Socks from Decology.

Boxes of Sonifericity

photo by Ye-Chun Wu

Boxes of Sonifericity is inspired by a Plunderphonic sound collage. The choreography takes a recognizable movement quote, and twists it backwards or forward, creating new movement that is layered through the eyes of each dancer. It creates a landscape which is simultaneously recognizable and new. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (4 dancers) 8 minutes. View Boxes of Sonifericity.

Dashpot

Photo by Paul B. Goode

Dashpot is an exploration of dampening dancers’ movement by utilizing fabric as the limiting factor. Music by the Thai Elephant Orchestra adds yet further complexity with its arrhythmic and irregular, non-human sound. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (10 dancers). 11 minutes. View an abbreviated version of Dashpot

Find/Feel Each Other

Photo by Austin Hogan

Find/Feel Each Other unabashedly recalls the ease, innocence, and hope of 60s America in popular music of the era interpreted through revisionist modern choreography. Company Choreographer: Beth Disharoon. (6 dancers) Music by Crosby, Stills, Nash,and Young.

A Glimpse of Sound

image by sunnypixel.com

photo by Paul B. Goode

A Glimpse of Sound is a contemporary dance piece providing a fresh perspective on the way dance relates to the cultural transition from early 20th-Century folk music to its early 21st-Century equivalent. In two sections, it is based on the conviction that music’s sound can be visualized with movement. It is the look of sound and the sound of movement. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (8 dancers) 29 minutes

Interchange

Photo by Austin Hogan

Photo by Lois Greenfield

Interchange is a tango quintet set to the haunting music of Astor Piazzolla taking place in the world of a mirror prison where a ballet jinn must escape through mimicry. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (5 dancers). Watch excerpts of Interchange

...Kitchensink

…Kitchensink is a suite of 5 solos created in collaboration with and inspired by the soloists. It has got a little bit of something for everyone and is full of the things we love. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier in conjunction with the company members/performers. (5 dancers)

La Plage

La Plage is a fun-loving Gatsby era summer day at the beach. It is set to Mozart’s Flute Quartets. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (7 dancers) 10 minutes. Watch a work in progress rehearsal video.

Mana

photo by Paul B. Goode

Mana (Hawaiian for power) is a modern piece set to the Hawaiian slack-key guitar music of Moses Kahumoku, Ozzie Kotani, and Keola Beamer. It was created in response to the destruction of a Hawaiian volcano by the military, and nature’s inherent ability to regenerate. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (6 dancers). View a video of Mana.

Merry Melody

photo by Austin Hogan

photo by Paul B. Goode

Merry Melody is a comedic ballet quartet set to the music of the Warner Brothers’ cartoons contrasting the whimsical and mercurial orchestral arrangements of composer Carl Stalling with the common classical expectations of a ballet on pointe. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (4 dancers).

Piano Pieces

photo by Paul B. Goode

Piano Pieces is a suite of dances ranging from solos, to duets and trios all performed to the live music of South African classical pianist Robert Laniewski. Each section relates the story of a different relationship from family to friends to lovers. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (7 dancers) Watch section 1 of Piano Pieces

Polkacello

Polkacello is a comedic piece set to traditional American polka music. It is three separate vignettes: The Ballerina, The Bride, and The Office. Each follows a woman as she is confronted with major life decisions. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (12 dancers) Music by Whoopee John, The Deutchmeisters, Frankie Yankovic, Polka Padre, Ivan Kahle, and Six Fat Dutchmen. View an excerpt of Polkacello's The Bride.

Prom

Image by sunnypixel.com

PROM is an off -center look back at an 80's high school prom set against a string quartet tribute to R.E.M.. Company Choreographers: Melanie Cortier and Robert Eric Ragan. (10 dancers) Music by Todd Rubenstein and Ron Hannah.

Slumber

photo by Rachel Neville

Slumber is a late-night amusement between siblings and friends, partnering and frolicking around and on a mattress on the floor of a 19th century home, set to music by Nicolo Paganini and costumed in authentic replications of period undergarments. It is an experiemental piece that takes the trappings of an easily identifiable period of time and imbues it with a modern aura and choreography. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (4 dancers) Watch Slumber

Sookie Jumps

photo by Austin Hogan

Sookie Jumps explores the music of Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter), legendary American folk singer and self-proclaimed “King of the 12-string guitar”, through the movements of seven women in plain-spun skirts. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (7 dancers) View Sookie Jumps

String Figures

photo by Lois Greenfield

String Figures is based on the popular children’s string games. A string figure is a design formed by manipulating large stretchy bands on, around, and using the dancer’s body or the bodies of multiple dancers. They may consist of singular images or various figures made in sequence. String games have been found in almost all of the cultures of the world and new ones continue to be created. Most people remember the games of Cat's Cradle and Jacob's Ladder but there are thousands more.

It uses 7 dancers and 4 stretchy bands. The musical accompaniment is improvised live by 7 horn instruments. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (7 dancers)

Suite Waltz

Suite Waltz follows the complicated relationships of a woman as one romance ends and another begins. Guest Choreographer: Margy Bernstein. (4 dancers) Music by: Wink Kelso and Robbie Robertson.

Surrender

Surrender (Pressed Fairies) tells the story of a little girl on her journey through the discovery of fairies and follows her as she fearlessly captures them while going about her day. Company Choreographer: Robert Eric Ragan. (5 dancers) Music by Leo Delibes and Charles Gounod.

Walkaround

Walkaround is a joyous approach to Dixieland jazz. The Red Hook Ramblers, a brooklyn based Dixieland jazz band perform live onstage as the dancers turn their music into movement. Walkaround combines jazz and ballet movement into a true thirdstream marriage. Company Choreographer: Melanie Cortier. (5 dancers)

Ward 9 Suite

Ward 9 Suite is a 25-minute dark comedic dance play inspired by the film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It is set to a Beethoven score and tells the story of seven mentally ill patients and their keepers in an insane asylum during the 1970’s who are suffering from a variety of both physical and mental disorders. Guest Choreographer: Matt Williams (14 dancers)