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Sidra Bell Dance New York celebrates 25 years with Quarter Turn, a special night of performance at Kaatsbaan. The company performs two seminal works: Bacchanale (iteration) and excerpts from IN￨REP: Introspection.
Bacchanale (iteration) is a new work commissioned by the John Cage Trust and performed with a live pianist. In 1940, dancer Syvilla Fort asked John Cage to compose an African-inflected work, Bacchanale, to be premiered at the Cornish School in Seattle. With no room on stage for a percussion ensemble, Cage slipped screws, bolts, and weatherstripping between the strings of a grand piano, and the prepared piano was born.
The company will also perform excerpts from IN￨REP: Introspection, a Bessie Award–nominated retrospective that spans its first two decades in a single composition. Bell calls it “a tapestry of the past with hints of the future.” It premiered at Gibney in October 2022 and earned Bell a 2023 Bessie nomination for Outstanding Choreographer.
A brief Q&A will follow the performance in the Blax Box Theater. Stay after for a post-performance reception in the Studio Complex Lobby, with objects on display from the company’s history and a toast in the Lobby Gallery.
This production has been made possible with funding from the John Cage Trust, New York State Council on the Arts, Danse Mirage Foundation, and Kaatsbaan Cultural Park.