Orpheus Variations (2020)
February 21 & 22, 2020
ISSUE Project Room
In his Orpheus Variations, composer Alvin Lucier arranges the pitches from a single chord from Stravinsky’s Orpheus, itself created as the score for a ballet. Abigail Levine’s choreography follows the structure of Lucier’s composition, each of seven dancers repeating a single gesture in precise coordination with one of the instrumental voices. Lucier commented that this piece emerged from his “haunting” by a certain sonority in Stravinsky’s chord. Moving gradually towards each other and then retreating, the dancers become fleetingly an incarnation of this spectral sound.
Cellist Charles Curtis leads an ensemble of seven winds. Levine is joined in performance by dancers Rob Besserer, Elena Demyanenko, Kentoria Earle, Ayano Elson, Maho Ogawa, and Kristopher K.Q. Pourzal.
photos: Cameron Kelly McLeod & Dyland Kenseth, courtesy ISSUE Project Room