doug varone and dancers

NEW FOR 2023-2024

In Rehearsal Photo: Ty Graynor

Varone’s ability to convey depths of emotion through highly charged, physically exciting choreography has made him a rarity among his generation.

- The New York Times

Design Collaborators

Lighting and projection designers Ben Stanton and Lucy Mackinnon will create starkly different performance environments for the two parts. Costumes, which will underscore and embellish the underlying themes and emotions of each section, will be designed by long-time Varone collaborator Liz Prince.

Length

Part 1: 40 minutes
Part 2: 30 minutes

Touring

To MY Arms / Restore can be presented as an evening-length program, or each part can be presented individually and combined on a program with other works from our repertory.

Touring personnel: 10-12

Commissioning opportunities are available.

TO MY ARMS / RESTORE

To My Arms / Restore is a two-part work embodying Varone’s decades’ long choreographic fascination between the deeply emotional and the immensely physical. Set to a suite of exquisite operatic arias by Georg Fredric Handel, To My Arms (Part 1), builds a rich and distinct landscape of love and loss within a suite of ten dances, evoking a strange otherworld of intimacy. In stark contrast, Restore (Part 2) is visceral, tactile, and unsparing movement that explodes across the stage, revealing a new and wide-open terrain of physicality. It is driven by the 21st century sound of DJ Nico Bentley’s Handel Remixed, a score that fuses the fundamentals of Handel’s 18th century choral score Dixit Dominus with beats more commonly heard in clubs around the globe; the result of which is a marriage between a score and a dance that is unabashedly glorious. With To My Arms/Restore, Varone’s masterly hand at crafting rich dances of emotional and physical resonances is on full display.

Music

Both parts can be performed with either live or recorded music. Live music options provide opportunities for college and community opera and chamber music groups to participate and perform, enriching the capacity to bring local audiences to the project.

Options for live music are:
Part 1: Chamber ensemble with two or more vocalists.
Part 2: Chamber ensemble with four vocalists, or chamber ensemble with twelve-person (or larger) chorus. Live music options involve a DJ electronically remixing the score during the performance.

Link to Part 1/To My Arms studio in process-recording:

REPERTORY PROGRAM

Photo: Jose Gato

SOMEWHERE (2019)

Somewhere reimagines Leonard Bernstein’s timeless West Side Story by stripping the orchestral score of its narrative connotations. The result: pure choreographic vibraPncy, brimming with nuance and emotional heft generated by the musical structure.

"Somewhere, is Doug Varone’s ravishing take on the orchestral score to West Side Story, Filled with the most sublime invention, Somewhere seems destined to become a classic work of contemporary dance. The entire work stands as a testament to this choreographer’s prolific creation of movement.” – Santa Barbara Independent

“The beauty of Varone’s version of West Side Story performed in its New York premiere for an audience that surely could sing along to the original by heart, is that he presents the story as if it were a dream sequence. Somewhere is pure dance relieved of storyline and lyrics.”

Length: 30 minutes
Touring Personnel: 10-12
Music: Recorded

Photo: Jose Gato

RISE (1993)

For the 23-24 season, Varone has reconstructed a new production of his master work Rise. In Rise, dancers spill across the stage in swirls of controlled chaos, with composer John Adam’s Fearful Symmetries underlying each step.

“The choreography and staging, combined with Adams’s score, create the kind of visual excitement that’s rare in any dance, much less one where non-stop movement provides the only basis for excitement.”
Critical Dance

"Mr. Varone has a company of daredevils, profoundly human superhumans who dance on a dime -- wheeling, darting and slicing the air at lethal-looking speeds -- and subside into passing moments of gentle, sometimes almost drowsy near-stillness filled with sweetness and affection. "Rise," danced to music by Mr. Adams, communicates all this and suggests how good Mr. Varone is at structuring his choreography."
- The New York Times

Length: 30 minutes
Touring Personnel: 10-12
Music: Recorded

About the company

For more than 35 years, Doug Varone and Dancers has built a legacy of award-winning dances. From the smallest gesture to full-throttle bursts of movement, Varone’s work can take your breath away with both its athleticism and its passion. Reaching out well beyond the proscenium arch, this legacy is underscored with the company’s renown residency and outreach programs. On tour, the company has performed in more than 125 cities in 45 states across the U.S. and in Europe, Asia, Canada, and South America. Stages include The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, San Francisco Performances, London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, Toronto's Harbourfront, Moscow's Stanislavsky Theater, Buenos Aires’ Teatro San Martin, the Venice Biennale, Marble Hall in Tokyo, and the Bates, Jacob's Pillow and American Dance Festivals. Varone, his dancers and designers have been honored with 11 Bessie Awards.

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