Custodians of Beauty

New York Live Arts 50 & Change Commission
Stay Late conversation, Friday, December 4th moderated by Michèle Steinwald.

Merging dance, live music and visual arts, Choreographer/Director Pavel Zuštiak examines the multiplicity of concepts of beauty and its permanence within art in Custodians of Beauty. The new work forges towards abstraction, minimalism, and restrained expressive modes while amplifying the potency of an image, as well as the human body as sculpture, emotional trigger, or political symbol. Zuštiak continues his acclaimed working relationship with composter/musician Christian Frederickson and lighting designer Joe Levasseur. Zuštiak is the 2015 Juried Award Recipient for The New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards.

In an age when humanity, disenchanted with itself, seems to have rejected the necessity of beauty, Custodians of Beauty asks us to look again, beyond the surface, to see differently. Where do we find beauty today and does it need our defense?

Custodians of Beauty is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by New York Live Arts in partnership with Walker Arts Center, Legion Arts and NPN. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). The Forth Fund is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information: www.npnweb.org.

Custodians of Beauty is supported by Jerome Foundation. It will have its world premiere at American Dance Institute (ADI) as part of ADI’s Incubator program.