December 17, 2004

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Lubovitch rehearses dancers in  Love Stories.

Chicago Contributors get a Sneak Preview of our Newest Work in Progress

This year the Lubovitch company is collaborating with other dance companies while creating 3 out of its 4 new dances.  To create Love Stories, the Lubovitch company is partnering with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.  That company is hosting a special event for their donors (at the DANCEMAKERS level) that features a preview of two of the new works in progress for the company's Chicago season  (March 30 - April 17, 2005).  The event will take place on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 at the Museum of Contemporary Art.  It will feature a cocktail reception and a preview of excerpts from Love Stories by Lar Lubovitch (as well as Enemy in the Figure by William Forsythe) followed by a brief question and answer session with choreographer Lar Lubovitch.  Although the event is not open to the public, you can contact Hubbard Street Dance Chicago at 312-850-9744 ext.130 to find out how to become a DANCEMAKERS donor and thereby attend the event.

Click here to visit Hubbard Street's website.

Meredith Monk.

Lubovitch’s Tribute to Meredith Monk (in Honor of her 40th Anniversary) Garners Praise

On November 23rd the Lubovitch company performed the world premiere of Do You Be -- a new dance created by the company in honor of Meredith Monk's 40th anniversary.  In his New York Times review of the dance, Jack Anderson wrote, in part:

"Tthe Lar Lubovitch Dance Company breezed through Mr. Lubovitch's charming new Do You Be, to musically playful sections from Ms. Monk's work of that title.  Jason McDole let his knees wobble as he hopped, skipped and twisted in a capricious solo.  A duet found Scott Rink embracing Rebecca Rigert and swinging her effortlessly about as if they had invented a new form of ballroom dancing."

Don't worry if you missed the performance, we are already planning to bring this piece back during 2005 for New York audiences.

Portrait of Lar Lubovitch, photographed by Rose Eichenbaum, and included in her newly released book, Masters of Movement.

Holiday Gift Alert: Masters of Movement... Portraits of America’s Greatest Choreographers is now Available

With photography and text by Rose Eichenbaum, this beautifully-crafted cloth-bound book contains both intimate conversations and 120 never-before-seen photographs of the biggest names in dance including Lar Lubovitch, Paul Taylor, Mark Morris, Bill T. Jones, Judith Jamison, Gregory Hines, Rob Marshall, Edward Villella, Ann Reinking, and many more. Jennifer Dunning of the New York Times says "Eichenbaum's firsthand knowledge of dance, her passion for dancing and the people who do it, and her appreciation of the minutiae of lives, both everyday and Olympian, all combine to open windows onto the soul of dance and the lives of those who helped to define and shape the art in the 20th century."

Visitwww.rosesfoto.com to download an order form by clicking on Masters of Movement.

Ronni Favors.

Lubovitch Company Helps Young People Dance Their Dreams

This winter the Lubovitch company is back in public high schools throughout the five boroughs with its two highly regarded educational programs - Dance Your Dreams and Open Doors. 

Dance Your Dreams gives students in 8 high schools the opportunity to interact directly with professional dancers from the company in experiential dance workshops.  Kelly, a past Dance Your Dreams participant said (about her experience): "The dance steps that you showed me and my classmates were something new to us.  We had fun and at the same time learned concentration and participation."  Dance Your Dreams is supported by the Irene Diamond Fund and by the city's Department of Cultural Affairs  

Open Doors is a mentoring program for a select group of high school students delivered in cooperation with Theater Development Fund.  For this program, Lar Lubovitch personally selects dance performances throughout the school year, which he attends with the participating students and discusses with them to help develop their critical faculties.   Their first event this year included a performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater followed by a discussion with Ronni Favors, the Ailey company's Rehearsal Director who also happens to be an alum of the Lubovitch company.   Ronni danced with the Lubovitch company from 1981-1989.

Kenneth Koen is the Newest Member of the Company’s Board of Directors

Kenneth F. Koen

The Lubovitch company is pleased to welcome Kenneth Koen as the newest member of our 15-person Board of Directors.  Ken is Vice President, Senior Tax Counsel for Viacom Inc. in New York, where he has worked for the last eight years.  He is a long-time supporter of the company and is a great addition to our Board team.  In addition to his interest in dance, Ken is an avid runner (having completed the NYC marathon 3 times), downhill skier, cyclist and hiker.  We welcome Ken and look forward to working with him. 

The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company is supported, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), the New York State Council on the Arts (a state agency) and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (a city agency).  We thank them for their ongoing commitment to our work.

October 30, 2004