Raiford Rogers L.A. Chamber Ballet

3/7/03

CONTACT:
Adele Field
Luckman Complex
(323) 343-6616

Calendar
of Events

Luckman Audiences to Get
First Look at Program
Slated for Sadler’s
Wells Peacock Theatre in London

Raiford Rogers LA Chamber Ballet has been invited to London’s Sadler’s Wells Peacock Theatre for six performances, June 17-21, 2003. The program of new works by the LACB will first be premièred at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Cal State L.A., Saturday, June 7 at 8:00 p.m. The program will include:

Untitled World Première
It should not surprise anyone that acclaimed composer Carlos Rodriguez would team up with choreographer Raiford Rogers, who has earned critical acclaim for his innovative collaborations. With this powerful new duet Rogers gives us a look through the transparent veneer of civilization. The dance expresses modern man’s unique relationship with his inner reptile. Rodriguez, who is creating an original electronic ballet score for guitar and cello to be performed live, has had three pieces commissioned and performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen. He has also been commissioned by the New Music Festival, SCREAM, UCLA’s American Music Festival, USC’s Contemporary Music Festival, and the Los Angeles Opera, to name a few.

Where Are You My Love?
“Choreographer Raiford Rogers and jazzman Charlie Haden were made for each other. Another victory of imagination for the city’s most genuinely creative ballet ensemble.” – Lewis Segal, L.A. Times

Dancers in sleek unitards manipulate light and shadow to music by jazz legend Charlie Haden, transporting the audience into the emotional world of Raymond Chandler’s film noir murder mysteries – a 1940s Los Angeles of femme fatales and lurking danger. Languid, the dancers fall into an endless dream of romance and mystery, sweeping us with them in their wake. With audio segments from actual films such as The Big Sleep starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, the overall effect is mesmerizing.

In C Première
Rogers interprets this riveting mid-20th century classic. In 1964, Terry Riley kicked off a revolution with his minimalist masterpiece In C, inspiring such young composers as Philip Glass and Steve Reich, and rock musicians such as John Cale and Brian Eno. Full of repeating cells, insistent rhythms, and high energy, In C is a work that can also be endlessly colorful. It is an “open score,” meaning that it can be played by any combination of instruments. Over the decades, it has been played by percussion ensembles, guitar groups, a Chinese traditional orchestra, and a microtonal band, among hundreds of others. In Rogers’ choreography, the dancers embody the transcendental, driving energy of the music with expert choreographic marksmanship. Costumed in simple black and white leotards, they pull and stretch their bodies, extracting energy from the space around them, expressing the music with infinite balances interspersed with lightning footwork and blinding turns.

Cabin Fever
As an astute chronicler of the Los Angeles landscape, urban essayist and commentator Sandra Tsing Loh creates offbeat, anti-chic, darkly comic vignettes about living in Los Angeles. Rogers interprets her work with a stunning company of male and female bathing beauties dealing with the reality of being stuck in a society obsessed with youthful expectations and the weird neuroses that follow. The seven movements of Cabin Fever vary from poignant solos to high energy group combinations; from Tsing Loh’s delicate piano accompaniment to hard driving electronic music; from happy Californians at poolside in the land of perpetual sunshine to blasé fashion models on display in an icy culture.

RAIFORD ROGERS is the director-choreographer of Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet and the Los Angeles Chamber Ballet. He is a native of Bad Axe, Michigan. His works have been performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. Rogers was awarded two National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer Fellowships. He has created a strong body of work including many collaborative projects with renowned artists. His most recent works include Cabin Fever with author and NPR radio commentator Sandra Tsing Loh; Cocktails With Joey and Knockaround with lounge icon Joey Altruda and his 18-piece Mambo Orchestra; and Where Are You My Love? with jazz legend Charlie Haden’s Quartet West.

Other unique projects include: Dmitri, set to a synopsis by Woody Allen; Orpheus: a Ballet-Opera and Antoine de St. Exupery’s The Little Prince with composer Lloyd Rodgers and artist Mark Stock; Question of Balance with artist John Nava; and Dream Baby with music by Roy Orbison. Additional pieces include So Nice, a 1950s satire set to bossa nova tunes, Wishes and Turns (Martinu), Autumn Trilogy (Bach), Concertino (Berio), and J. Alfred Prufrock (Ginastera).

Rogers is choreographer in residence at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and has performed new works every year at LACMA since 1997. He was recently commissioned to create two new works for BalletFest in Los Angeles at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex. Rogers serves on numerous government peer panels and is a selector for the Alberto Vilar Global Fellowships. He danced professionally with the Constanza Hool Ballet of Mexico, the Albuquerque Dance Theatre, and with Gene Marinaccio in Los Angeles. He attended the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico, and the University of New Mexico (BFA).

This past August, LA Chamber Ballet performed in NYC at the Duke on 42nd Street.

WHAT:
Raiford Rogers LA Chamber Ballet

WHEN:
Saturday, June 7, 2003, 8:00 p.m.

WHERE:
The Harriet & Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Cal State L.A.

TICKETS:
$32.50, $27.50, $22.50. Discounts available for: students, seniors, DRC, groups.
Box Office: (323) 343-6600 / Ticketmaster: (213) 365-3500 or www.ticketmaster.com

INFO:
www.luckmanfineartscomplex.org

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