25th Season

MICHAEL MAO DANCE 25th Season program presents 4 repertory favorites of extreme contrasts, suitable for general and family audiences. Special Sat matinee half price for children who will interact with 15 dancers and choreographer.
KINDERSPIEL, to the “brimming exuberance of Mendelssohn’s music,” is to Mendelssohn’s exultation of his children’s unbridled energy and innocence, contrasted with the choreographer’s celebration of his dancers forever young and vigorous, full of vim and daring as they run, skip, fall and hurdle through the work. Made in 2000 and premiered at the then Merce Cunningham Studio, the work mines movements and games children used to play.

WEAVING
“Weaving is a strong, feisty work, combining pounding drums with a multicultural sensibility, driving towards a strong sense of conclusion. Mao’s powerhouse performers move with a lithe assuredness, creating tension and drama, and beauty.” Edinburgh Spotlight
“works clearly with the music but sometimes against it, too, in clever counterpoint…ingenious solutions for moving are discovered, which makes for some fascinating things to watch.” Dance Europe
“A strikingly powerful modern quartet with a tribal edge. Here both men and women display their power as they command the stage with their physicality and athleticism. The dancers kick, spin, leap and cartwheel to create a frenzy of strength and technique. The energy exerted by the company is tangible and as the piece reaches its climax, the audience is left eager for more.” The Skinny

SHIFTING SHADES has been described as “urban, complex, odd and dazzling,” is a dance of the 21st Century. Premiered in Edinburgh UK in 2010, refined and re-shaped in subsequent years, the work has taken on qualities and resonances of today’s fragmented, ever changing world. Fast-paced and task like movements morph into various contexts in which to view today’s human contact, at once sparse and intense.
“Spatial, aural and kinetic forces intercept and diverge in this collaboration between Michael Mao and composer Huang Ruo inspired by Ruo’s Drama Theater No. 2: Shifting Shades, a composition for piano, cello, percussion, and eighteen beer bottles.” Edinburgh Spotlight
“Complex…dazzling” Edinburgh Festivals Magazine

STILL NIGHT, to music by Arvo Pärt,
Commissioned 25 years ago by Lake Placid Arts Center
“Michael Mao’s Still Night was a dreaming ritual, set to music by Arvo Pärt, in which 12 men and women clad in white moved in short and long diagonals and long straight lines between the back and the front of the stage. Led by Rulan Tangen and Lawrence Joseph, the dancers had a formal air that made them seem like stately angels.” New York Times
“A dreamily beautiful dance…a moonlight ritual.” Chelsea Clinton News
“A hauntingly beautiful dance…not a word or sigh could be heard in the captivated audience.” Arkansas Gazette