Among the many wonders of Beth Gill’s “New Work for the Desert” is that the dance lasts an hour but seems much shorter or possibly much longer: It alters your sense of time.

– Brian Seibert, The New York Times

This evening length, impressionistic dance abstracts the themes of ambition, journey and love within an aesthetic world inspired by Trisha Brown’s 1987 masterpiece Newark and the natural landscape of the United States’ Southwest desert. Gill and lighting designer Thomas Dunn transform the theater into a reflective white box space, which shifts through saturated color fields reminiscent of the desert’s visually dramatic transformations. Moniaci’s composition, which is performed live, further activates the visceral presence of the theater through vibration and the localization of sound. Immersed in this environment, each dancer struggles differently within the rigidity of the form, to claim gestures and unlock expression.

Places Performed
New York Live Arts (NY)

Runtime
50 minutes

Choreography
Beth Gill
 

Lighting and Set Design
Thomas Dunn

Music
Jon Moniaci

Performed by
Christiana  Axelsen
Jennifer  Lafferty
Heather Lang
Marilyn Maywald
Kayvon Pourazar
Stuart Singer

New  Work For  the Desert  is commissioned  by New York Live  Arts and made possible,  in part, by the National  Endowment for the Arts, the  New York State Council on the  Arts and the Jerome Foundation. Additional  support is given by contributors to the Dance  Theater Workshop Commissioning Fund at New York Live  Arts.The work was developed, in part, through residencies  at the Herberger Institute for Design and Arts at Arizona  State University in partnership with New York Live Arts, with  support from the National Endowment for the Arts; and at Mt. Tremper  Arts with support from New York State DanceForce.

The creation of New Work  for the Desert was also supported by the 2012-2013 New York City Center Choreography  Fellowship, as well as a residency at The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography  in partnership with the Hatchery Project funded primarily by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation  with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts; and by a MASS Manufacturing  program residency at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art supported by the Vermont Performance  Lab in partnership with the Hatchery Project.

Additional funding was generously provided by the following  donors: Johanna & Sergio Burani, June & Jimmy Caravella, Joseph Caravella & John Ciaffone, Lucy Jo & Arthur  Cormano, Theresa & John d’Epagnier, Annette d’Epagnier & David Mitchell, Chaecha & Andy d’Epagnier, Michelle d’Epagnier,  Judy & Frank Giannelli, Teresa Gill, Maria & Tom Gill, Barbara & Timothy Gill, Julia Gill, Sally & Charlie Gill, Nina  Cindrich & Brian Gill, Tamar Gisis, Danielle King, Louise & Jim Mullican, Lucy Palladino, Dorothy & Steven Rosenblatt and  Lucy & Richard Santoro