Pearson Widrig Dance Theater

Repertory

•	Company Works

	–	Unmoored (Love Letters to New Orleans)
	–	Thaw
	–	The Return of Lot’s Wife
	–	HereAfter
	–	Ordinary Festivals

•	Solos & Duets

•	Site-Specific/ Site-Adaptive

•	Community Performance Projects

•	Video Works

•	Lecture Demonstrations

•	Young People’s Concerts

•	Repertory List 1986-2007

“Your separation from God is the hardest work in
this world.”

Hafiz

Jack Vartoogian

“Intriguing ... ingenious ... around
her swirl the forces of the soul.”

The New York Times

• In this edgy evening-length dance/theater/salt epic, Lot’s Wife finally confronts God in her 1950’s Brooklyn kitchen where she looks back again and again. With great humor and compassion, The Return of Lot’s Wife examines the larger questions of human nature, weaving beautifully choreographed images, heartbreakingly funny monologues, original music, and the poetry of 14th Century Persian mystic Hafiz. This poignant sequel to the Old Testament tale has wowed audiences with its breathtaking finale featuring dancers swathed in swirling arcs of salt and light.

• Film composer Carter Burwell (Fargo, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, etc.) has written “one of the finest scores for modern dance.” (Back Stage)

Premiere • Joyce Theater Altogether Different Festival, January 2003

Tour Highlights • Kennedy Center Millennium Stage • Bates Dance Festival • London Dance Umbrella • Flynn Center • Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

Commissioned by • the Joyce Theater with funding from the Stephen and Cathy Weinroth Fund and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support provided by NYSCA, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust / American Music Center, DTW’s Bessie Schönberg / First Light commissioning program, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the Harkness, Sequoia, and Lifton Family Foundations, Manuela Bianchi, Jon Wiener, and Morton’s Salt.

Tom Caravaglia

“The phenomenon of life and death
was performed with breathtaking
vitality and energy.”

Der Toggenburger, Switzerland

• HereAfter explores people’s relationship to life and death and what comes next, to beginnings and endings — of a life, a relationship, a job, a building, a passion. Finding words for the unspoken, and movement and music that fills the heart, the universal experience of love and loss are broken wide open with curiosity, compassion, and humor.

• Bessie award winning composer Robert Een created the original score.

Premiere • Joyce Theater Altogether Different Festival, January 2000

Tour Highlights • Flynn Center • Bräker Zyklus/Switzerland • L/A Arts/Maine

Commissioned by • the 2000 Altogether Different Fund for New Works, sponsored by The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc. Additional support provided by the Rockefeller Foundation / Multi-Arts Production Fund, NYSCA, the Harkness, Sequoia, and Lifton Family Foundations.

“A tough-tender dance, staged with wise theatricality.”

The Village Voice

Dona Ann McAdams

“The audience was delighted.”

The Village Voice

“Most amazing! Most enjoyable!”

The New York Times

• A dancetheater piece for 300 oranges, 6-16 performers, and 2 knives that “pushes the rituals of a traditional community over the edge into mysterious, subversive, and often funny acts.” (The Village Voice) and has been seen by over 15,000 people throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America.

• Set to the enchanting folk music of pre-war Italy, the 55-minute work explodes with images both wildly kinetic, deeply moving, and delightfully odd.

Premiere • P.S. 122, New York City, April 1995

Tour Highlights • Kennedy Center Millennium Stage • Joyce Theater • 9-city tour of Switzerland • Festival Internacional de Danza, Lima, Peru • Woking Dance Umbrella, England • Bates Dance Festival • Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center • Maine Festival • Grace Street Theater, Richmond, VA • Redfern Arts Center, Keene, NH • Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors • Central Park SummerStage

Commissioned by • P.S. 122 with funds from the Jerome Foundation, the Harkness Foundation, the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, and the Union Bank of Switzerland.


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