Media contact: Camille LeFevre

Email: camillelefevre@comcast.net

Office: 651-646-2098

Cell: 651-285-2287

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Zenon Dance Companys

31^st Spring Season

May 9-11, 16-18 @ The Cowles Center

World Premieres by Daniel Stark and Netta Yerushalmy

Reprise of Kyle Abrahams My Quarreling Heart

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTAFor 30 years, Zenon Dance Company has performed a unique role in the region and throughout the United States: Artistic Director Linda Z. Andrews has created an extensive modern, jazz and post-modern dance repertory by commissioning new works from more than 60 of the worlds most intriguing emerging choreographers.

For its 31^st Spring Season, Zenon continues that tradition with world premieres by Minnesota-based Daniel Stark, and New York/Tel Aviv choreographer Netta Yerushalmy, whos last work for Zenon was Hello, My Name is Catherine. Also on the program are reprises of Kyle Abrahams 2011 My Quarreling Heart and Danny Buraczeskis iconic Ezekiels Wheel.

31^st Spring Season

When: 8 p.m. May 9-10, 16-17

7 p.m. May 11 and May 18

Where: The Cowles Center, Minneapolis

Tickets: $34; 612-206-3600

http://www.thecowlescenter.org/calendar-tickets/zenon-dance-company-2

Starks first work for Zenon is Folktale Zero, which re-imagines the Icelandic folktale of Grýla while examining whether folktales have a hold on todays generation zero. Hes currently is an associate professor of dance at Minnesota State University in Mankato. His choreography was featured in Earth: Healing the Rift, a performance in Kenya involving collaborations between visual and performing artists from Africa, Russia, Italy, India, Greece, New Zealand, U.K. and the U.S. He has also set dances on the Beijing Dance Academy in China and dance companies throughout the U.S.

Yerushalmy is a 2012 recipient of the Guggenheim Foundations Fellowship in Choreography. She danced with Doug Varone and Dancers for five years. OffOffOff magazine says she carries the torch for modern dance by making big, energetic dances full of a self-assurance that has nothing to do with arrogance. The Star Tribune called Yerushalmys Hello, My Name is Catherine an oddly delightful amalgam of court and folk dancing all wrapped up in a singular postmodern sensibility. The Pioneer Press described the piece as a Jackson Pollock painting sprung to life.

Abraham began dancing at 17 and in 2013 was named a MacArthur Fellow. The MacArthur Foundation describes Abraham as a choreographer and dancer probing the relationship between identity and personal history through a unique hybrid of traditional and vernacular dance styles that speaks to a new generation of dancers and audiences. Abraham was heralded by OUT magazine as one of the best and brightest creative talents to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama. The Star Tribune wrote that the Bessie Award-winning Abraham is one of today's most sought-after young choreographers, and Zenon did well to land this talent in its studio. My Quarreling Heart, created in collaboration with the company, is a masterful kinetic mix-tape of influences from modern dance to hip-hop and even a hint of moshing. The work showcases Abraham's distinctive flair for deconstructing the familiar, often at a fast yet fluid pace, to uncover layer upon layer of new possibilities.

Buraczeskis 1999 Ezekiels Wheel was inspired by the writings of James Baldwin and set to an original score by Phillip Hamilton. In the work, wrote the New York Times, Buraczeski draws on the full jazz-dance vocabulary, from struts and prowls as soft as a cat's purr to sharp-edged thrusts, leans and turns. In the process, he suggests how much more can be done with the idiom than is usually attempted. While Ezekiels Wheel was originally created for his company Jazzdance, Zenon is now the repository of Buraczeskis most notable works.

History

Linda Z. Andrews, founding artistic director, studied at the Martha Graham School, Alvin Ailey Dance Center, Julliard School, and with Alvin Nikolais, Lynn Simonson and Merce Cunningham before moving to Minneapolis. She formed Ozone Dance School in 1979, which today is the Zenon Dance School, a nationally recognized training center for vocational and professional dancers. In 1983, she formed the professional Zenon Dance Company from her two dance groups: Rezone Dancers (modern) and Just Jazz Dancers (jazz). Since its first performance in 1983, Zenon Dance Company has become one of the nations premier contemporary dance repertory companies.

The repertory includes works by such now-iconic choreographers as Bill T. Jones, David Dorfman, Doug Varone, Bebe Miller, Joe Goode, Tere OConnor, Sean Curran, Wil Swanson, and Bill Young, as well as rising stars Andrea Miller and Kyle Abraham. International choreographers whove worked with Zenon include Susanna Tambutti and Johannes Wieland.

From post-modern choreographers, Zenon has repertory works by Tere OConnor, Morgan Thorson, luciana achugar, Jeanine Durning and Faye Driscoll. Zenon is also the repository of jazz choreographer Danny Buraczeskis works, which the company performs with regularity. In 1989, Buraczeski moved his New York company JAZZDANCE to Minneapolis to merge with Zenon, a fruitful relationship for many years. Andrews has also supported local choreographers throughout three decades, commissioning works from Wynn Fricke, Cathy Young, Robin Stiehm, Linda Shapiro, Uri Sands, Joe Chvala and Myron Johnson.

For more information on Zenons 31^st Spring Season, contact Camille LeFevre at 651-646-2098; camillelefevre@comcast.net.

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