![]() ![]() ![]() Parson has two large-scale works in repertory at The Martha Graham Dance Company, and she created a solo for Wendy Whelan commissioned by the Royal Ballet. Vincent’s 2014 world tour, as well as her performances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, her appearance in the David Lynch festival, the Hollywood Bowl, her world tour of Mass Seduction 2018, and on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Kimmel. She also created the choreography for St. Vincent and a marching band Byrne’s 2008 Brian Eno world tour, and many of his television appearances including Jimmy Fallon, Colbert and others. Other work includes David Byrne’s musical Here Lies Love at both the Public Theater and The National Theater in London David Byrne’s 2012 world tour with St. ![]() Parson also choreographed one thousand singers for a work by David Lang at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. Most recently, Parson choreographed David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway. Parson has created choreography for opera, pop musicians, television, movies, theater, ballet, marching bands, and symphonies. Her work with Big Dance has been commissioned by The Old Vic/London, Les Subsistances in France, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The National Theater of Paris/Chaillot, The Japan Society, The Walker Art Center, The Kitchen, and many other theaters. She has choreographed and co-created over 20 works for the company, ranging from pure dance pieces to adaptations of found text, plays, and literature, to original works combining wildly disparate materials. Just as Stop Making Sense was more than just another live album from just another rock band, American Utopia on Broadway does more than document Byrne's 2018-2019 tour, it stands as a grand and powerful statement of its own from an artist who is as relevant now as he was in his salad days.ANNIE-B PARSON (choreographer and director)Īnnie-B Parson co-founded Big Dance Theater in 1991 with Molly Hickok and Paul Lazar. And if American Utopia was thoughtful and whip smart, the Broadway show is thoughtful, whip smart, and fun - an entertainment that doesn't compromise its intellect for its unique brand of showmanship and vice versa. For the show, Byrne also filled out the program with a rich variety of songs from his days with Talking Heads and his solo career, and they enhance the effect of the American Utopia numbers, as well as reminding us that the LP's view of the State of the Union in the Trump era was ultimately one more chapter in a story he's been pondering for decades now. Where the surfaces of the studio album were often cool and dryly ironic, the sweat and fire of a live show is apparent throughout, and Byrne's ensemble is capable of cutting his brand of funk with confidence and élan. Listening to this performance without seeing it puts the material at a certain disadvantage, but this is a significantly more satisfying and pleasurable experience than the American Utopia album was. The tour eventually led to a run on Broadway, and American Utopia on Broadway documents how the show sounded to the patrons who saw it on the Great White Way. Byrne's 2018 album American Utopia fared well with critics, but what really caught the attention of his audience was the tour he mounted in support, in which he performed with a small army of dancers and musicians who were in constant, carefully choreographed movement that changed it from a concert into something truly spectacular. David Byrne may be the most cerebral rock musician of his generation, but unlike most of the artists who follow close behind him, he's someone who understands the physicality of performance and the notion of giving it up for an audience smart and arty as he may be, he understands the age-old concept of giving the audience a show, and he happens to be very good at it. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |