This year’s Spring Dances concert featuring the outstanding talent of NWSA college dancers, will present important guest choreography as well as faculty work. The performance will include Paul Taylor’s masterwork, Piazzolla Caldera, set to the tango-inspired music of Astor Piazzolla. This sultry, dramatic work, which NY Times critic Gia Kourlas described as one which is “about uncovering the tango’s soul”, will be brought to life by the sets and costumes created by Broadway legend Santo Loquasto. Robert Battle’s (NWSA alum) powerful and driving work, Rush Hour, requires “stamina, precision, and perseverance” from the performers (princeton.edu/news) and is a thrilling tour de force. Contemporary choreographer Rena Butler, a former dancer with Kyle Abraham, Gina Gibney, Hubbard Street Dance Company, and others, is currently in-demand in the U.S. and Europe. She has created a new work in collaboration with the NWSA dancers which puts their individual talents as dancers on display and which showcases them as a cohesive group. The program is rounded off by a new work by local guest artist, Donna Murray, who has created works for Dimensions Dance Company, Palm Beach Atlantic University, and others, as well as a new dance by NWSA faculty member and former Martha Graham Dance company member, Peter London. London’s work draws on his history with the Graham Company, and his expertise in that technique, fused with the influence of dance in the Caribbean his choreography is always vivid and dazzling.
