Doug Varone, an eight-time Bessie Award-winner who is among the most acclaimed choreographers of his generation, is bringing his renowned company, Doug Varone and Dancers — now entering its 20th year — to Edison Theatre for performances March 31-April 2.
Shows, sponsored by Dance St. Louis and the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series, will begin at 8 p.m. today and April 1 and at 2 p.m. April 2.
Long considered a “choreographer’s choreographer,” Varone captures the nuances of human interaction in works of extraordinary physical daring and vivid musicality. Over the years he has developed a body of work that has been hailed by critics as “among the most compelling in the contemporary repertory.”
“Doug Varone is that rare choreographer with a gift for expressing emotion through dance,” The New York Times wrote. “He has a company of daredevils, profoundly human superhumans who dance on a dime — wheeling, darting and slicing the air at lethal-looking speeds.”
Varone has choreographed work for the concert stage as well as for opera, Broadway, regional theater, film and television.
The company has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, performing regularly at the Tokyo, Jacob’s Pillow and American Dance festivals, and at preeminent venues such as The Joyce Theater in New York; The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; Queen Elizabeth Hall in London; and the Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow.
Varone has won more than 20 commissions from many of the nation’s leading dance presenters. Other honors include three National Dance Project Awards and the American Dance Festival’s Doris Duke Award for New Work.
The Edison Theatre program will open with Varone’s signature, 28-minute “Rise” (1993), set to John Adams’s jazzy “Fearful Symmetries.” The piece begins as a series of duets that soon spiral into trios and larger, more intricate groupings, gathering speed and power as the piece approaches an explosive climax.
Next up is the dramatic, 22-minute “Tomorrow” (2000), set to Belle Epoque love songs by Reynaldo Hahn; and the searing “Short Story” (2001), a passionate five-minute duet set to music of Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The program will conclude with “Castles” (2004), an epic, 29-minute ballroom piece for eight dancers. Set to a half-dozen waltzes by Serge Prokofiev, including “Cinderella” and “War and Peace,” this lyrical, romantic work is structured around a pair of duets, one for two men, one for a man and a woman.
“I’m drawn to the lushness of the score,” Varone told Dance Magazine on the occasion of “Castles” premiere. “There are hints of fairy tales — you might quickly glimpse four white mice — but all within a contemporary context.”
Edison Theatre programs are made possible with support from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; the Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis; and private contributions.
Dance St. Louis is presenting Doug Varone and Dancers as part of its 40th anniversary season. From the time Dance St. Louis was founded in 1966 by a small group of dance enthusiasts headed by Annelise Mertz, then-WUSTL professor of dance, the organization has burgeoned into one of the St. Louis area’s cultural treasures and a national dance landmark — a dance-only presenter, one of only six organizations in the United States that specialize every year in a complete fall-to-spring season of dance.
Dance St. Louis is a funded member of the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis, and receives support from the Missouri Arts Council, the Regional Arts Commission and the Heartland Arts Fund — a joint venture of Arts Midwest and Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources.
Tickets are $28; $24 for seniors and WUSTL faculty and staff; $18 for students and children. Tickets are available at the Edison Theatre Box Office (935-6543), the Dance St. Louis Box Office (534-6622; 3547 Olive Blvd., Suite 301), the Dance St. Louis Web site (dancestlouis.org) and through MetroTix (534-1111).
For more information, call 935-6543.