Friday, October 23 - 9:00 pm
Saturday, October 24 - 8:00 pm
Sunday, October 25 - 3:00 pm

1, A, C, B or D trains to 59th St./Columbus Circle
N, R, Q or W trains to the 57th Street (at 7th Ave.)
C or E trains to the 50th St. (at 8th Ave.)

Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theatre, the Manhattan based dance company celebrating its thirty-ninth year, will present the world premiere of three works, "The Spring", "Haiku" and "Light Is Calling" and revive two master works, "Mudai" (1971) and "Bereft" (2008) on Friday October 23 - 25, 2009 at the Ailey Citigroup Theater.

"The Spring" (WORLD PREMIERE), a large ensemble piece set to Igor Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps”, explores the traditional ritual of the “iomante” ceremony celebrated by the Ainu, the indigenous inhabitants of Hokkaido, the northern most island of Japan. Deities such as the black bear, who delivers fur and meat to the Ainu, are indispensible to their lives. The Ainu bear sacrifice is a ceremony to send the spirit of the bear back to its own world, thus ensuring a bountiful hunt.

"Haiku" (WORLD PREMIERE) is a solo for Sarah Stackhouse, a former lead dancer with the Jose Limon Dance Company, about whom Jennifer Dunning wrote, “Her gifts have been forged in the fire of dance history.” The accompaniment is "Two Haiku" by Basho set to the music of Joji Yuasa, “Koto Uta Basho’ s 5 Haiku.”

"Light Is Calling" (WORLD PREMIERE) is a joyous escapade for six dancers to a section of music of the same title by contemporary composer Michael Gordon.

"Mudai" (1971) is a revival of a quartet to an organ score by the late German-Argentinean composer Mauricio Kagel features performances by Daniel Madoff of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and Jeremy Nedd, formerly of Hubbard Street 2. In a 1978 review in the NY Times, Jennifer Dunning wrote: Mudai is “a work of clarity and invention…one of Miss Hirabayashi’s more sculptural dances, and like many of the works she choreographed then it grants… the same rare sense of vitality to the space between shapes as does a formal Japanese garden.”

"Bereft" (2008) is an ensemble piece featuring José Limón dancer, Kathryn Alter as Eve, and is set to the documentary film score, Koyaanisqatsi, by world–renowned composer, Phillip Glass. Based on the story of Genesis, "Bereft" explores the ordeal from the point when Adam and Eve are exiled from heaven, reviewed in 2008 by Jennifer Dunning who called it a "dark, swirling maelstrom."

DANCERS: Sarah Stackhouse, Daniel Madoff, Kathryn Alter, Selena Chau, John Hinrichs, Stacy Martorana, Jeremy Nedd, Adrian Silver, Alenka Cizmesija, David Claps, Giovanna Gamna, Kyle Gerry, Kathryn MacLellan, Hanan Misko, Luke Murphy, Rio Tasia Smith, Jessica Stanelle, Meggi Sweeney, Hiroko Yanagawa

For reservations e-mail KHDTinfo@gmail.com
or call 212-966-6414
Tickets: $20/$15 student

This program is made possible in part by the Soar Grant from Asian American Arts Alliance