P6 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

Rachel Fine Managing Director

Paul Crewes Artistic Director

PRESENTS

About the Artist

JONATHAN BISS is a world-renowned pianist who shares his deep musical curiosity with classical music lovers in the concert hall and beyond. Over nearly two decades on the concert stage, he has forged relationships with the New York Philharmonic; the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Philharmonia orchestras; the Boston, Chicago, and Swedish Radio symphony orchestras; and the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Budapest Festival, and Royal Concertgebouw orchestras, among many others. In addition performing a full schedule of concerts, the 36-year-old American has spent ten summers at the Marlboro Music Festival and has written extensively about his relationships with the composers with whom he shares a stage. A member of the faculty of his alma mater the Curtis Institute of Music since 2010, Biss led the first massive open online course (MOOC) offered by a classical music conservatory, Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, which has reached more than 150,000 people in 185 countries. This season Biss continues his latest Beethoven project, Beethoven/5, for which the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra is co-commissioning five composers to write new piano concertos, each inspired by one of Beethoven's. The five-year plan began last season, with Biss premiering Timo Andres's “The Blind Banister,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music, and which Biss plays with the New York Philharmonic in the spring of 2017. This season he premieres Sally Beamish's concerto, paired with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1, with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, before performing it with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. In the next three years Biss will premiere concertos by Salvatore Sciarrino, Caroline Shaw, and Brett Dean.In addition to his involvement at Marlboro, Biss spends the summer of 2016 as the Artist-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center, where he performs chamber music, a solo recital, and the

Andres and Beethoven concerto pair with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. He also gives recitals at the Aspen and Ravinia summer music festivals as part of his ongoing concert cycles to perform all the Beethoven sonatas.

In 2016-17 he begins examining, both in performance and academically, the concept of a composer's “late style,” and has put together programs of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Britten, Elgar, Gesualdo, Kurtág, Mozart, Schubert, and Schumann's later works, both for solo piano and in collaboration with the Brentano Quartet and Mark Padmore, which he will play at Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Performances, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, London's Barbican Centre, and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. A previous Biss initiative, Schumann: Under the Influence, was a 30-concert exploration of the composer's role in musical history, for which he also recorded Schumann and Dvorák Piano Quintets with the Elias String Quartet and wrote an Amazon Kindle Single on Schumann, A Pianist Under the Influence. This season Biss also gives masterclasses at Carnegie Hall in connection with the idea of late style and publishes a Kindle Single on the topic in January.Biss has embarked on a nine-year, nine-disc recording cycle of Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas, and in early 2017 he releases the sixth volume, which includes the monumental “Hammerklavier” sonata. Upon the release of the fourth volume, BBC Music Magazine said, “Jonathan Biss will surely take his place among the greats if he continues on this exalted plane.” His bestselling eBook, Beethoven’s Shadow, published by RosettaBooks in 2011, was the first Kindle Single written by a classical musician, and he will continue to add lectures to his extraordinarily popular online course, Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, until he covers all of them.

Throughout his career, Biss has been an advocate for new music. Prior to the Beethoven/5 project, he commissioned are Lunaire Variations by David Ludwig, Interlude II by Leon Kirchner, Wonderer by Lewis Spratlan, and Three Pieces for Piano and a concerto by Bernard Rands, which he premiered with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has also premiered a piano quintet by William Bolcom. Biss represents the third generation in a family of professional musicians that includes his grandmother Raya Garbousova, one of the first well-known female cellists (for whom Samuel Barber composed his Cello Concerto), and his parents, violinist Miriam Fried and violist/violinist Paul Biss. Growing up surrounded by music, Biss began his piano studies at age six, and his first musical collaborations were with his mother and father. He studied at Indiana University with Evelyne Brancart and at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Leon Fleisher. At age 20, Biss made his New York recital debut at the 92nd Street Y’s Tisch Center for the Arts and his New York Philharmonic debut under Kurt Masur.

Biss has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Leonard Bernstein Award presented at the 2005 Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Wolf Trap’s Shouse Debut Artist Award, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2003 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and the 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award. His recent albums for EMI won Diapason d’Or de l’année and Edison awards. He was an artist-in-residence on American Public Media’s Performance Today and was the first American chosen to participate in the BBC’s New Generation Artist program.

For more information, please visit jonathanbiss.com.

OCTOBER 12-14, 2017Bram Goldsmith Theater

Running Time: 70 minutes with no intermission

DORRANCE D A N C E

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Michelle Dorrance

DANCERSEphrat "Bounce" Asherie, Chris Broughton, Elizabeth Burke, Warren Craft,

Michelle Dorrance, Claudia Rahardjanoto, Byron Tittle, Matthew “Megawatt” West, Gabriel Winns Ortiz, Nicholas Van Young

Program

JUNGLE BLUES

Brief Pause

THREE TO ONE

Brief Pause

MYELINATION

Dance @ The Wallis is made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE P9P8 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

JUNGLE BLUES (2012)CHOREOGRAPHY: Michelle Dorrance with solo improvisation by Christopher BroughtonMUSIC: Branford Marsalis QuartetLIGHTING: Kathy KaufmannCOSTUMES: Amy PageDANCERS: Full Company SOLOISTS: Claudia Rahardjanoto, Elizabeth Burke & Nicholas Van Young, Michelle Dorrance & Warren Craft, Byron Tittle,Christopher Broughton

Brief pauseTHREE TO ONE (2011)CHOREOGRAPHY: Michelle DorranceMUSIC: Aphex Twin, Thom YorkeLIGHTING: Kathy KaufmannCOSTUMES: Michelle Dorrance and Mishay PetronelliDANCERS: Michelle Dorrance, Byron Tittle, Matthew "Megawatt" West

Program

DORRANCE DANCE is a 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 by artistic director and 2015 MacArthur Fellow, Michelle Dorrance, the company has received countless accolades, rave reviews and performed for packed houses at venues including The Joyce Theater (New York, NY), The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), New York City Center (New York, NY), Lincoln Center Out of Doors (New York, NY), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (Beckett, MA), Vail International Dance Festival (Vail, CO), National Arts Centre of Canada (Ontario, Canada), Fira Tarrega (Tarrega, Spain), Staatstheater Darmstadt (Darmstadt, Germany), Danse Danse Montreal (Montreal, Canada), Hong Kong Arts Festival (Hong Kong), among others and including many colleges and universities across the United States.

About the Company Dorrance Dance StaffARTISTIC DIRECTORMichelle Dorrance

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORDonald Borror

GENERAL MANAGERCourtney Runft

REHEARSAL DIRECTORElizabeth Burke

MUSICAL DIRECTORDonovan Dorrance

PRODUCTION MANAGER/SOUND ENGINEERChristopher Marc

LIGHTING DESIGNKathy Kaufmann

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR/ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERDiego Quintanar

ARTIST REPRESENTATIVEMargaret Selby, Selby/Artists Management

About the Artists

MICHELLE DORRANCE (Artistic Director/Choreographer/Dancer) is a New York City based tap dancer, performer, choreographer, teacher, director, and is the founder and Artistic Director of

Dorrance Dance. Mentored by Gene Medler, she grew up performing with his North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble and has since performed with: STOMP, Savion Glover’s ti dii, Manhattan Tap, Barbara Duffy & Co, JazzTap Ensemble, Rumba Tap, Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer, Mable Lee’s Dancing Ladies, Harold Cromer’s original Opus One, Derick Grant’s Imagine Tap, Jason Samuels Smith’s Charlie’s Angels/Chasing the Bird, and Jon Batiste and Stay Human on CBS’s "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." She has also worked on Damian Woetzel's Vail Dance Festival Projects, with the Martha Graham Dance Company as a guest choreographer and performer, and toured the world playing bass for indie-pop sensation, Darwin Deez. A 2016-17 New York City Center Choreography Fellow, 2016 United States Artists Award Recipient, 2015 MacArthur Fellow, 2014 Alpert Award winner, 2013 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award winner, 2012 Princess Grace Award winner, 2012 Field Dance Fund recipient, 2011/2015 Bessie Award winner, and a Capezio Athlete, Michelle holds a B. A. from New York University and teaches on faculty for IFTRA.

EPHRAT “BOUNCE” ASHERIE (Dancer) a 2016 Bessie Award Winner for Innovative Achievement in Dance, is a New York City based bgirl, dancer and choreographer. As artistic director of Ephrat

Asherie Dance (EAD), she has presented work at Jacob’s Pillow, FiraTarrega and New York Live Arts, among others. Ephrat has received numerous awards to support her work including a Kevin Spacey Artist of Choice Award, a Mondo Cane! Commission from Dixon Place and an Extended Life Residency from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Ephrat is on faculty at Wesleyan University and Broadway Dance Center. For more information please visit www.ephratasherie.com.

CHRISTOPHER BROUGHTON (Dancer) born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Chris began dancing at the age of 11 and has never looked back. Under the instruction of Paul and Arlene Kennedy at

Universal Dance, he soon became a member of The Kennedy Tap Company where he received the national NAACP ACT-SO Award, twice. He now travels worldwide both as a soloist and with Jason Samuels Smith’s A.C.G.I., Rasta Thomas’ Tap Stars, and Dorrance Dance. Performances include New York City Center’s Cotton Club Parade; Juba! Master’s of Tap & Percussive Dance at the Kennedy Center; and Broadway’s Tony & Astaire award-winning production After Midnight.

ELIZABETH BURKE (Rehearsal Director/Dancer) has been working with Dorrance Dance since the company's inception in 2010/2011 and prior to that spent 11 years under the tutelage of her

mentor, Gene Medler, in the acclaimed North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble (NCYTE). She also works with Nicholas Young’s SoundMovement Dance Company and Caleb Teicher & Company, among other choreographers. Burke is an alumna of the School at Jacob's Pillow and Marymount Manhattan College (BA Political Science, BA Communication Arts, magna cum laude, 2014). When not working with Dorrance Dance, Burke teaches and pursues her own choreographic work.

WARREN CRAFT (Dancer) is a New York City tap dancer who has trained in ballet with both the American Ballet Theatre and the School of American Ballet. He has been a member of Brenda Bufalino’s

New American Tap Dance Orchestra, Max Pollak’s RumbaTap, and Dorrance Dance. He moves with "bizarre physicality," and "unconventional eloquence." (New York Times).

DONOVAN DORRANCE (Musical Director/Composer/Musician) hails from Chapel Hill, NC where he studied piano, guitar, drums, and voice before attending The University of North Carolina for a B.A. in

Philosophy. After singing in an a cappella group, drumming in an indie-rock band, and receiving a degree fit for waiting tables for the rest of his life, Donovan moved to Brooklyn to assist his sister’s company and pursue his passion for music. In his

spare time, Donovan composes music with Greg Richardson for Dorrance Dance, takes online business courses, and is occasionally published in his UNC professors’ books in the field of philosophy.

AARON MARCELLUS (Musician), singer, vocal coach, writer, musician, dancer, and actor from Atlanta started in gospel music and has performed around the world. He has recorded albums and was voted

top 24 on American Idol in 2011. After a world tour, Aaron was featured in a Chapstick commercial, NBC’s “Next Caller” and is a cast member of STOMP. Marcellus also hosts a Burlesque show at Duane Park. Most importantly, he founded both Surrender To Love, LLC, a foundation that supports arts programs and seeks to feed the hungry and Adventure Voice, a training program offering vocal classes for groups and individuals.

CLAUDIA RAHARDJANOTO (Dancer), born and raised in Berlin, Germany, started dancing professionally at the age of nine at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Named one of “25 To Watch” by

Dance Magazine in 2010 and featured on the cover of Dance Teacher Magazine in 2011, Claudia has danced with and learned from Andreas Dänel, Sven Göttlicher, Dianne Walker, Ted Levy, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Michelle Dorrance, Derick Grant, Brenda Bufalino, Roxane Butterfly, Andrew Nemr, Barbara Duffy, Jane Goldberg, Jared Grimes, Max Pollak, Michael Minery, the late Harold ‘Stumpy’ Cromer, and the legendary Mable Lee, amongst others. She is grateful to be able to share her passion and love for tap dance through her performances and teaching worldwide.

GREGORY RICHARDSON (Composer/Musician) was born in Tucson, AZ and learned rhythm and blues at an early age from a family of church musicians where everyone could play at least a little piano and

everyone was expected to sing. He went on to study music at Bard College and settled finally in New York City where he has been living and creating ever since. Richardson tours around the world with the band Darwin Deez and gigs around New York with the trio Analogue Experimental and with Damian Quinones y su Conjunto, playing son, salsa, jazz, cumbia, and boogaloo. In recent years he’s found a second home with the tightly-knit New York City tap dance community, performing with SoundMovement

The creation of Three to One was made possible, in part, by the Danspace Project 2010-2011 Commissioning Initiative with support from the Jerome Foundation. Danspace’s Commissioning Initiative is a core component of the Choreographic Center Without Walls (CW²).

Brief pauseMYELINATION (2017)CHOREOGRAPHY: Michelle Dorrance in collaboration with and featuring improvisation by the dancersADDITIONAL CHOREOGRAPHY: Ephrat "Bounce"Asherie and Matthew “Megawatt” WestMUSIC: composed by Prawn til Dante (Donovan Dorrance and Gregory Richardson) with vocals by Aaron MarcellusLIGHTING: Kathy KaufmannCOSTUMES: Amy PageDANCERS: Full CompanyMUSICIANS: Donovan Dorrance (piano/clarinet), Aaron Marcellus (vocals/keys),

Gregory Richardson (bass/clarinet)Nicholas Van Young (percussion) WITH: Warren Craft (additional guitar), Claudia Rahardjanoto (additional piano/keys)

Myelination (2017) has been commissioned, in part, by Cal Performances, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California. Myelination (2017 and 2015) has also been commissioned by New York City Center for the Fall for Dance Festival with generous support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Music for Myelination (2015) commissioned by the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation.

Myelination (2017) was also made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The 2017-2018 creation and presentation of an evening-length version of Myelination is also supported, in part, by a New Music USA Project Grant.

This touring engagement is generouslyunderwritten by First Republic Bank.

P10 PERFORMANCES MAGAZINE

Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills9250 BEVERLY BLVD. BEVERLY HILLS, CA 90210 | 310.659.2980 | WWW.BHBENZ.COM

From one great classic to another,we congratulate you on your fifth season!

PROUD TO BE THE OFFICIAL AUTOMOTIVE SPONSOR OF

Dance Company, The Institute for the Rhythmic Arts, and The American Tap Dance Foundation. He has composed and performed in several shows with Dorrance Dance, including Myelination, SOUNDspace, ETM: The Initial Approach, ETM: Double Down at the Jacob’s Pillow festival, and Delta to Dusk.

BYRON TITTLE (Dancer) has been dancing since the age of 7 in his hometown of New York. Starting with tap and ballet, he soon grew to enjoy the different genres and aesthetics in the entire realm of dance. He began

tapping with the American Tap Dance Foundation’s Tap City Youth Ensemble, where he met Michelle Dorrance. Continually taking her master classes and workshops, he joined the company in 2013 and has been consistently involved since then. Commercially, he has danced for Janet Jackson and Nicki Minaj but feels most at home on stage with Dorrance Dance.

NICHOLAS VAN YOUNG (Dancer/Musician) a New York-based dancer, choreographer, musician and master teacher, began his professional career under Acia Gray and Deidre Strand with Tapestry Dance

Company in Austin, TX, eventually as a principal dancer and resident choreographer. Since moving to New York, he has performed with Manhattan Tap, RumbaTap, Dorrance Dance, “Beat the Donkey,” has toured as a drummer for Darwin Deez and spent almost a decade performing with STOMP. Nicholas recently premiered his dance company “Sound Movement” and is currently collaborating with Michelle Dorrance on a new world of dance ad music featuring innovative and unique tap dance instruments of Young’s own design.

MATTHEW “MEGAWATT” WEST (Dancer) started dancing at 16 on his church’s dance team in Queens, New York, and with the company On Point Choreography, with whom he learned challenging

choreography and mastered different styles within hip hop dance. He has competed in several Bboy competitions, and strives to impart knowledge and wisdom on the next generation of dancers: he has taught at Coney Island’s Shining Angels Studio and at after school programs in Queens. Mega is an avid listener of house music and a dedicated student of house dance, training with the NYC crew MAWU, Conrad Rochester, and James "Cricket" Colter.

GABE WINNS ORTIZ (Dancer), 26, was born and raised in San Diego, CA. He started dancing at the age of 11, and his love for the art form has continued to grow ever since. He has toured worldwide with

the critically acclaimed stage show Tap Kids, and since moving to New York City he has worked with various companies, including RumbaTap, Dorrance Dance and Swing FX. He also directs his own group called the Students of Sound, and teaches at the American Tap Dance Foundation. Television credits include America’s Most Talented Kids (2002), America’s Got Talent (2011), and FakeOff (2014).

DONALD BORROR (Executive Director), from Columbus, Ohio, is an emerging arts leader in New York City. He joins Dorrance Dance from Dunch Arts, a cultural management

consulting firm where he worked with Mark Morris Dance Group, The Apollo Theater, among others. Donald was a producer for Lincoln Center Education and a company dancer for Ballet Hispanico. He has served as board chair of both the Dance/NYC Junior Committee and San Francisco-based nonprofit dance advocacy organization, BEMOVING. Donald holds a B.F.A. in Dance from The Juilliard School, receiving the Martha Hill Prize for Artistic Achievement and Leadership, and a Masters in Arts Administration from Columbia University.

KATHY KAUFMANN (Lighting Designer) is a resident designer at Danspace Project whose work has been seen throughout the US, Canada and Europe. She is a two-time Bessie recipient and was nominated for

her work on Rebecca Davis’s Bloowst Windku at Here in 2015. She was also honored to be included in Curtain Call: Celebrating 100 Years of Women in Design at the NY Performing Arts Library and currently teaches lighting at Sarah Lawrence College. Most recent projects include designs for Joanna Kotze, David Parker, Eiko & Koma, Jillian Peña, Larissa Velez Jackson and Dorrance Dance (The Blues Project, SOUNDspace and ETM).

CHRISTOPHER MARC (Production Manager/Sound Engineer) Credits: The Kennedy Center TYA: Elephant and Piggy’s we are in a Play; National Tour: Clifford the Big Red Dog Live! Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival;

Forever Plaid, Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, The Fantasticks. Design Credits: Off-Broadway; The Black Book; Aquila Theatre National Tour; Wuthering Heights, The Tempest, Fahrenheit 451, Twelfth Night.

DIEGO QUINTANAR (Technical Director/Assistant Stage Manager), started working in theater production as a student at the College of the Holy Cross. He was introduced to Dorrance Dance through his work

with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process series as a project coordinator. Other credits include: Latino Cultural Center and Wyly Theater, Dallas, TX where he worked as a carpenter and electrician; off-Broadway musical I Like It Like That as Production Manager, NYC; Shen Wei Dance Arts, NYC and Dance Heginbotham, NYC as an assistant stage manager and scenic charge.

COURTNEY RUNFT (General Manager) hails from Wichita, Kansas and presently resides in New York City. She is a graduate of Friends University and holds a BA in Business Management (magna cum

laude). In addition to her work with Dorrance Dance, Courtney is the former Director of the American Tap Dance Foundation’s Tap City Junior Ensemble, Tap City’s summer youth program, and Education Associate/Registrar. A passionate educator, Courtney is the lower school dance teacher at St. Luke’s School and is on faculty at the ATDF.

About the Artists