Play and Play: An Evening of Movement and Music @ Maison de la Danse, Lyon, France

Ravel: Landscape or Portrait? (2012) responds to Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major (1903), reflecting the wistful and melancholic sentiment of the score as well as its precision and restraint. Similar to the music’s complicated internal logic, one of two choreographic variations for the third movement (either landscape or portrait) is selected by chance procedure before each performance. The New York Times describes the work as “made up of protean tableaus” with “Arresting moments…continually absorbed into the flow.”

Story/ (2013) is a continuation of the Company’s investigation in using indeterminacy as a choreographic tool. Following the model for the acclaimed Story/Time, the work employs a random menu of movement that is interrogated by Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No 14 in D Minor (Death and the Maiden) to craft an energetic conversation between the music and movement. Called a “strong” work with “compellingly enigmatic duets…’Story/’ is alive with glimpses of ordinary life” (The New York Times).