Limón Dance Company has today announced details for its highly anticipated new 2023 Spring season, with an ambitious tour that spans three venues across Manhattan and Brooklyn.
With performances taking place from Wednesday 3 May until Friday 19 May 2023, Artistic Director Dante Puleio will bring Limón’s unique brand of storytelling and choreographic craftsmanship to City College’s Aaron Davis Hall (160 Convent Ave, West Harlem), The Museum of Jewish Heritage, A Living Memorial to the Holocaust (36 Battery Place, Lower Manhattan) for a one-night-only gala performance, and The Green-Wood Cemetery (500 25th Street, Brooklyn).
Dante Puleio comments:
“The Limón Dance Company is getting the chance to redefine itself. We are thrilled to explore some unexpected spaces and meet some new people. It’s a new era for dance and I want where we show our work to reflect that. By quite literally taking our season on the move, we hope to provide a new level of access to our audiences and build new, lasting relationships with lovers and patrons of dance.”
CITY COLLEGE’S AARON DAVIS HALL
Wednesday 3 May 2023 at 7 PMSaturday 6 May 2023 at 1 PM and 7 PM This exciting program, taking place in Limón Dance Company’s own West Harlem neighborhood, will feature Limón’s moving tribute to Isadora Duncan in Dances for Isadora, and a revitalization of his iconic work, A Choreographic Offering – a memorial bouquet to his mentor and modern dance pioneer, Doris Humphrey. For these performances, the Company will be joined by members of Limón2, highlighting a commitment to educating and integrating the next generation of artists through the Limón Institute. The program will also offer the second part of a multi-city collaboration with one of Florida’s leading contemporary dance companies, Dance NOW! Miami who will perform their work Anusim: What is Hidden is Never Lost. Together, the two companies will perform Limón’s final work The Waldstein Sonata – his breathtaking homage to Beethoven. This work was left unfinished at the time of Limón’s death and was completed three years later by his protege, Dr. Daniel Lewis.
In a moving gesture, Dr. Lewis will gift the rights to the work to the Limón Foundation in a public signing ceremony.
THE MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE, A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
Gala Performance, Thursday 11 May 2023 at 7 PMTrue to Limón’s artistic and social ethos, the Foundation places great importance on the nuances of the human condition, emphasizing community building and collective perseverance, making The Museum of Jewish Heritage an ideal place to see Limón’s work in a new light.This year’s gala event will focus on new partnerships that illustrate the many facets of José Limón’s identity and honor individuals whose work exemplify service to the performing arts field. The José Limón Foundation will present Jay H. McDowell with the Limón Foundation Award for Philanthropy in recognition of his six-decade career as an advisor and board member to charities and his patronage to the arts and Virginia Johnson, founding member and Artistic Director of Dance Theatre of Harlem, will receive the Limón Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in celebration of her four decade-long chapter of dance history before her June 2023 retirement. The special evening’s program will feature a suite of Limón’s Psalm, an epic drama based on André Schwarz-Bart‘s “The Last of the Just,” inspired by the Jewish legend of the Lamed Vav. Eugene Lester’s original score will accompany the dance, and will feature a live singer.
Additionally, the program will include a performance by a selection of NYC public school students sharing their own creation inspired by Limón’s A Choreographic Offering as part of the Limón4Kids program. Limón2 commissioned choreographer and former Limón Company Member, Ashley Lindsey, will premiere a new contemporary work.
THE GREEN-WOOD CEMETERY
Thursday 18 May 2023 at 7 PMFriday 19 May 2023 at 7 PMThe Limón Dance Company is thrilled to be the first major legacy company to perform at Green-Wood, a unique venue situated between Park Slope and Sunset Park Brooklyn.
Beloved works from the company’s repertoire, reflecting themes of death, remembrance, and the celebration of life, have been specially selected for this first-ever performance at the Cemetery.
This program will feature A Choreographic Offering, a memorial bouquet to Limón’s mentor and modern dance pioneer, Doris Humphrey. The program will also include an unforgettable performance of Orfeo, a powerful retelling of the Greek classic about loss and the boundless potential of love and one of the last works Limón choreographed in tribute to his late wife, Pauline Lawrence Limón.
First performed in 1972, this performance will premiere gender neutral casting of Orfeo, redefining who tells their story of love and loss.
