The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company from the US performed at National Center for the Performing Arts on February 3rd and 4th.
The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company was founded in 1968. Over the past 41 years it has gained an international reputation as one of the world's best dance companies. Celebrated for both its choreographic excellence and its unsurpassed dancing, the company has created more than 100 new dances and performed before millions throughout the United States and in more than 30 foreign countries.
Artistic Director & Choreographer: Lar Lubovitch
Lar Lubovitch is one of America's most versatile, popular and widely seen choreographers. He founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company 41 years ago and has created more than 100 dances for the company. Based in New York City, the company has performed throughout the world. Lar Lubovitch's dances have also been performed by many other major companies. His dances on film include Othello (broadcast throughout the U.S. on PBS's "Great Performances" and nominated for an Emmy Award), Fandango (winner of an International Emmy Award) and My Funny Valentine for the Robert Altman film "The Company," (for which Lubovitch was nominated for an American Choreography Award).
Mr. Lubovitch has also made a notable contribution to choreography in the field of ice-dancing, having created dances for Olympic skaters John Curry, Dorothy Hamill, Peggy Fleming, Brian Orser, JoJo Starbuck and Paul Wylie, as well as two one-hour ice-dances for television: The Sleeping Beauty (PBS) and The Planets (A&E) (nominated for an International Emmy Award, a Cable Ace Award and a Grammy Award). His work on Broadway includes Into the Woods (Tony Award nomination), The Red Shoes (Astaire Award) and the Tony Award-winning revival of The King and I.
In 2007 Chicago-born Lubovitch (together with Chicago-based dancer Jay Franke) founded the Chicago Dancing Festival, a non-profit organization whose mission is to present a wide variety of excellent dance and build dance audiences in Chicago. CDF was launched in cooperation with Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) and the City of Chicago. The official premiere of the festival was a free one-night-only dance concert at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. More than 8,000 people attended the performance, which featured dancers from seven leading American companies. In 2008 CDF expanded to include three days of programming in three different theatres, attended by over 12,000 people. For his vision in establishing the Festival, Lubovitch was named 2007 Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune.
Programs
Concerto Six Twenty-Two
Concerto Six Twenty-Two, one of Lubovitch's most-acclaimed works, premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1986. Although "men dancin" has existed in modern dance almost from the beginning, "concerto" brought a new freedom of expression to this concept. While "concerto" does not tell a literal story, it does indelibly portray men (for the first time) within a caring, supportive and loving relationship. In the mid-1980s, this aspect of "concerto" gave the work special resonance in the face of the AIDS crisis, but the theme is timeless.
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