Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance presents Tales of Hopper
Tuesday February 25th and Wednesday February 26th, 2020 at 7:30pm
at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music
Tales of Hopper is the fruit of a collaboration between choreographer Cherylyn Lavagnino and composer Martin Bresnick inspired by the work of American painter Edward Hopper. This theater-dance work casts the dancers as figures plucked from selected Hopper paintings, illuminating human connections through gestural movement steeped in subtext, as Bresnick’s original composition for piano, violin, and cello brings emotional undercurrents to the surface. Transparent set pieces reference Hopper’s environments, contextualizing each of the eight vignettes as they unfold. Tales of Hopper marks a departure for Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, asking each of the dancers to step into the new roles of actor and collaborator in the company’s most character-driven work to date.
Lavagnino’s newest work is a mastery of collaboration with world-renowned artists including composer Martin Bresnick, pianist Lisa Moore, violinist Elly Toyoda, cellist Ashley Bathgate, set designer Jesse Segers, and costumer Christopher Metzger. CLD performing artists include Sharon Milanese, Kristen Foote, Claire Westby, Justin Faircloth, Corinne Hart, Lila Simmons, Jesse Campbell, Emma Pajewski, Philip Strom, Dervla Carey Jones, Gwen Gussman, and Chad Balen.
“Edward Hopper’s paintings portray a sense of despair and emptiness—a crisis of an alienated world reflecting the loneliness of the human situation in a new, modern age. As artists, we have the only real job security: the expression of the human experience cannot be replaced by computers or machines. CLD has a responsibility to provide insight into and reflection on these disturbing concepts through collaborative, connected performance.” - Cherylyn Lavagnino, Artistic Director