Have any questions?
(614) 292-3535
Contact Us
Thu, Dec 27, 2007
This fall, the Wexner Center presents two international dance highlights: the first full evening program in the United States by ultra-contemporary Japanese choreographer Hiroaki Umeda, and a new collaborative work by French choreographer Jérôme Bel, creator of the acclaimed The show must go on (performed here in 2005), and classical Thai dancer Pichet Klunchen. Tickets for both performances are available now at the Wexner Center Ticket Office (614 292-3535) or at Ticketmaster.com.
S20 / Hiroaki Umeda Thursday, October 4–Saturday, October 6, 2007 | 8 pm
Wexner Center Performance Space (1871 N. High St.)
Tickets: $18 for the public, $15 for Wexner Center members, and $10 for students
From his current base in Tokyo, Hiroaki Umeda has created his own company—S20—in which he appears as a solo performer who places equal emphasis on his lighting and scenic design elements as he does on his movement work. His intensely physical meditations on space and sensory perception are placed within environments of sparse dramatic lighting, strobing cyber-imagery, and crackling digital soundscapes, all of which he designs. For his debut here, Umeda performs Accumulated Layout, and while going to a condition, which the New York Times praised for the way he "mirrored the pulsing score with an accumulation of motion, starting with his feet and rising gradually to overtake his buckling legs and rubbery torso.” Umeda’s approach retains traces of butoh and street dance forms even as it explores a radically minimalist aesthetic, flashing between the sublime and the violent, and between fluid grace and sudden shock waves of movement. Dance Magazine wrote that “the performance space was transformed into an uncanny magnetic field.” Umeda’s Montevideoki, a video piece, will be screened between the performance works. This show marks his only U.S. date this fall and the first time Umeda will perform a full evening program in the U.S. Born in 1977, he has performed at dance venues and festivals around the world. More information on Umeda and S20 is available at www.hiroakiumeda.com.
While at the Wexner Center, Umeda will conduct a discussion session with students in Ohio State’s Department of Dance. At this session, Umeda will talk about the evolution of his approach to performance which places equal focus on lighting, sound, set design, and his movement ideas. Hiroaki Umeda’s U.S. tour is supported by the EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee.
Jérôme Bel: Pichet Klunchun and myself Monday, November 12, 2007 | 8 pm
Weigel Auditorium (1866 College Road, adjacent to the Wexner Center)
Tickets: $20 for the public, $17 for Wexner Center members, $10 for students
“Captivating...a performance of rare intelligence.” —Le Figaro on Pichet Klunchun and myself
French conceptualist choreographer Jérôme Bel won over Wexner Center audiences in 2005 when he made his local debut with his pop music-infused hit The show must go on, with Columbus Dispatch critic Barbara Zuck naming it one of the top shows of the year, and calling it "a clever and innovative piece that overturns a number of theatrical traditions and probes contemporary culture from many angles." But, as she also noted, "what Bel has accomplished in this work is something quite a bit more than fun and games." Bel returns with Pichet Klunchun and myself, a collaborative project with the exquisite classical Thai dancer Pichet Klunchun. The performance takes the form of a theatrical report about the meeting between two artists who know nothing of each other and have very different practices. Each performer attempts to learn more about the other through questioning and demonstrations of ideas about dance that reveal their personal motivations despite a significant cultural gap. Throughout their brilliant exchange, the dialogue obliquely touches on such subjects as identity, multiculturalism, and globalization, as the work celebrates the two artists’ wide spectrum of inquiry and mastery of their chosen paths. More information: www.jeromebel.fr.
While at the Wexner Center, Bel will offer a discussion session with students in the Department of Dance and the Department of Art at The Ohio State University. At this session, students (who will have seen the performance) will be able to ask questions of Bel; Bel will discuss the conceptual underpinnings of Pichet Klunchun and myself as well as its evolution.
Pichet Klunchun and myself is funded in part by FUSED: French U.S. Exchange in Dance, a program of the National Dance Project/New England Foundation for the Arts and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York, in collaboration with FACE (French American Cultural Exchange), with lead funding from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Florence Gould Foundation, and Mr. George Desipio.
PERFORMING ARTS SEASON SUPPORT
Major support for the Wexner Center’s 2007–08 performing arts season is generously provided by Huntington Bank, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Columbus Foundation.
Significant contributions are also made by Morgan Stanley and Nationwide Foundation.
Additional season funding is provided by the Ohio Arts Council, the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation, and Wexner Center members.
Preferred accommodations: The Blackwell Inn.
