JUNE 13-15 / hour varies / DANCE / COMING TOGETHER / ATTICA / Choreographer REBECCA LAZIER and indie-classical ensemble Newspeak join forces to present Coming Together/Attica, an immersive, site-specific dance work to a pulsating score by minimalist icon Frederic Rzewski. Composed after the 1971 prison riots in upstate New York, the companion scores Coming Together and Attica are based on the words of prisoners.  Coming Together incorporates a letter from an inmate who died in the uprising and Attica builds on a sentence spoken by a detainee who survived the riot. Lazier takes Rzewski’s piece as the starting point for a kinetic meditation on isolation and collision, order and chaos.

Performing are Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener (formerly of Merce Cunningham Dance Company); Asli Bulbul, recently from Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company; Jennifer Lafferty, who is featured in the work of Beth Gill and Yasuko Yokoshi; Pierre Guilbault; and Christopher Ralph. David T. Little of Newspeak will conduct, with Mellissa Hughes as the vocal soloist.

The dance, presented on the third-floor, is performed in three parts; each section occurs in a different area of the 4000 square foot space, framed by a distinct lighting installation and a changed audience perspective. The music and movement of Coming Together/Attica juxtapose intricate structures and in-the-moment improvisations.  Lighting design by Bessie winner Davison Scandrett, costumes by Mary-Jo Mecca.

“…immediate, intense, energetic, exertive, evocative, curious, chaotic, compelling, stirring, spastic, sensual and, in a word, satisfying, the full effect is one of absorption and surrender.”
 Stephen Patrick Clare – Arts East

Thursday, June 13 at 7:00 and 9:00pm
Friday, June 14 at 7:30 and 9:30 pm
Saturday, June 15 at 7:30 and 9:30 pm
The performance lasts 50 minutes.