North Adams — “Larry Keigwin is amazing,” declared Ella Baff, executive and artistic director of Jacob’s Pillow. “People often say his choreography is very winning, very communicative with the audience and very available in spirit. He is one dancer, one dance-maker who really seems to be having fun with dance. You get the sense that he really enjoys what he does.”
Baff is expressing her enthusiasm and high anticipation for the 43-year-old choreographer from New York, who is bringing his high-energy and provocative KEIGWIN + COMPANY to MASS MoCA in North Adams this weekend (April 11 and 12) for two performances: 8 p.m. on Saturday April 11 and 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 12, at the Hunter Center.
The performances are part of an active, ongoing collaboration between Jacob’s Pillow and Mass MoCA.
“The Pillow builds audiences for dance year-round, and one of the ways in which we do that is through our partnership with MASS MoCA,” Baff said. “Audiences will be wowed by KEIGWIN + COMPANY’s unstoppable energy and style.”
And she added: “A wide range of people who see his work appreciate it. You don’t need a code book.”
In addition to diverse works, including Waterfront, a piece accompanied by selections from Leonard Bernstein’s score for On the Waterfront, the program this weekend features the world premiere of a solo piece, Panic, that will be danced by Keigwin, his first return to the dance stage since he ruptured his Achilles tendon three years ago and his first solo in more than 10 years.
“This is an extra treat – to see Larry Keigwin dance,” Baff said. “It’s really a very big deal.”
“Panic is 8 minutes long, and it’s an emotional essay,” Keigwin explained, in a conversation during a break from rehearsals in North Carolina. “But I’m very excited to be premiering this work at MASS MoCA. You know, this is the first time we’ve performed at MASS MoCA, though we’ve danced at the Pillow. And I can’t wait.”
The program begins with Contact Sport, performed by three men and one woman. “There’s a lot of horseplaying in it, reflecting sibling rivalry,” Keigwin noted. “It’s performed to Big Band Music – Ertha Kitt – so it’s also a little nostalgic.”
Next comes Waterfront, “a showcase for the whole company, with many sweet solos,” he said. “It was performed for the first time on stage with the 125-piece National Symphony Orchestra in 2014.”
Tryptych is the concluding work on the program. “It has an original score by Jonathan Pratt,” Keigwin explained. “It’s inspired by architectural elements – skyscrapers, and diagonals, and by the sense of time marching on, to the beat of the music.”
After the performance, Ella Baff will moderate a discussion with Keigwin and take questions frm the audience.
Larry Keigwin found his instinct for dance at an early age. In an interview he recalled how he would perform gymnastic routines on his front lawn in front of passing cars in Wading River, Long Island. He joined a circus training program, performed in school musicals, and earned roles in “Club MTV” episodes before attending Hofstra University. After graduating in 1994, he danced with artists including Julie Taymor, Doug Elkins, Doug Varone and Mark Dendy. It was Dendy who encouraged Keigwin to perform solo as part of Dendy’s program at the Joyce Theatre, and thus Keigwin’s career as a contemporary choreographer was subsequently launched.
He has worked with the pop band Fischerspooner and comedian Murray Hill, and as an associate choreographer for The Radio City Rockettes and the off-Broadway musical, The Wild Party. More recently, he has choreographed the current Broadway production of If/Then, starring Tony Award winner Idina Menzel; Tales of the City, starring Betty Buckley at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco; and the off-Broadway production of Jonathan Larson’s RENT.
Larry Keigwin’s work has been commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim, The Juilliard School, New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute and the Martha Graham Dance Company. He has also created Keigwin Kabaret, a fusion of modern dance, vaudeville and burlesque for the Public Theater at Joe’s Pub and by Symphony Space.
For more information on this performance, and to buy tickets, click here.
