Works & Process at the Guggenheim Presents a Dorrance Dance Rotunda Project Revival with Two Free Educational Demonstrations and a Performance for Middle and High School Students

• Free
• Performing Arts

Works & Process at the Guggenheim Presents

A Dorrance Dance Rotunda Project Revival

with two free educational demonstrations

and a performance for middle and high school students

November 1, 2018

“The best dance of 2017” –New York Times

Works & Process will present a Dorrance Dance Rotunda Project Revival with two free special demonstrations and a performance for middle and high school students on November 1, 2018.

 The work, a site-specific commission made in and for the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda of the Guggenheim which the New York Times hailed as a “revelatory dance experience,” features percussive dance and transforms the iconic space into a giant musical instrument. After its premiere in 2017, Dance Magazine called the work “genius… funny yet breathtaking, endlessly entertaining but compositionally brilliant,” and the work was selected as a Best of Dance by the New York Times for 2017. The piece is 40 minutes long, highly engaging, and immersive, making use of the architecture and acoustics of the rotunda through cross-genre percussive movement.

Founded by MacArthur Fellow Michelle Dorrance, one of the most sought-after tap dancers of her generation, Dorrance Dance will additionally present an educational demonstration before and after the rotunda performance inside the theater at the Guggenheim. The rotunda performance combined with the educational demonstration will make for a wonderful way to engage students with dance, providing deep context to a morning of music, movement, and architecture. 

In 2017, Works & Process launched a new initiative, commissioning site-specific residencies and performances for the iconic Guggenheim rotunda. The first Works & Process Rotunda Project featured Dorrance and Bessie award-winning collaborator, Nicholas Van Young, leading a large cast of dancers and musicians, using dance and percussion to create a performative soundscape incorporating the rotunda as a musical playground.

The performance and education demonstrations are made possible by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional funding provided by Jody and John Arnhold.

Dorrance Dance is an award-winning tap dance company based out of New York City. The company’s work aims to honor tap dance’s uniquely beautiful history in a new, dynamic, and compelling context; not by stripping the form of its tradition, but by pushing it – rhythmically, technically, and conceptually. The company’s inaugural performance garnered a Bessie Award for “blasting open our notions of tap” and the company continues its passionate commitment to expanding the audience of tap dance, America’s original art form. Founded in 2011, the company has received countless accolades, rave reviews and performed for packed houses at venues including The Joyce Theater (New York, NY), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (Becket, MA), New York City Center (New York, NY), Carolina Performing Arts (Chapel Hill, NC), Vail International Dance Festival (Vail, CO), The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), Lincoln Center Out of Doors (New York, NY), among many others, including many colleges and universities across the United States and international venues in Canada,France, Germany, Spain, England, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Rotunda Project Revival

Thursday, November 1, 2018 

9:30 – 10:15 am – Demonstration for 250 students in theater

10:30 – 11:15 am – Performance for 500 students in rotunda

11:30 am – 12:15 pm – Demonstration for 250 students in theater

VENUE

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

1071 Fifth Avenue, New York

Works & Process at the Guggenheim
Described by The New York Times as “an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process,” for over 34 years and in over 500 productions, Works & Process enables New Yorkers to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed artists in the world, in an intimate setting unlike any other. Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, has championed new works and offered audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers. Most performances take place in the Guggenheim’s intimate Frank Lloyd Wright-designed 285-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. In 2017, Works & Process established a new residency and commissioning program, inviting artists to create new works, made in and for the iconic Guggenheim rotunda. worksandprocess.org.