Photo Flash: WERK!: THE ARMITAGE GONE VARIETY SHOW Plays Abrons Arts Center

In a career spanning three decades, the American choreographer Karole Armitage has continuously bridged contemporary ballet with the worlds of visual art and fashion. Luminaries such as Jeff Koons, David Salle, Philip Taaffe and Brice Marden have created sets and costumes for her dances. She is described as "pioneering in her valorization of voguing, creating the video for Madonna’s 'Vogue' in 1992 and serving on the jury of many of New York’s underground voguing balls, elaborate early 1980s events in which 'walkers' competed in a series of categories emulating high fashion, style or a ways of being."

Check out the production photos below!

Werk!: The Armitage Gone Variety Show exemplifies Armitage’s artistry: The eveing is anchored by the American premiere of Rave, a work that mixes voguing with a vast array of other movement forms, resulting in a unique combination of ball, ballet and carnival. In the polymorphous, celebratory spirit of the piece—and characteristic of her embrace of visual art—she has invited Will Cotton, Doug Fitch, Kalup Linzy, Richard Phillips, Aïda Ruilova and William Wegman to contribute short (5-to-10-minute) pieces to the program, which will conclude with Rave, performed by Armitage Gone! Dance.

Werk!: The Armitage Gone Variety Show will be held at the Abrons Arts Center, located at 466 Grand Street, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Performances will take place May 2 at 7:30 P.M.; May 4 at 7:30 & 10:00 P.M.; and May 5 at 7:30 & 10:00 P.M. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased by calling 212.598.0400 or by visiting www.abronsartscenter.org.

Rave is a celebratory happening mixing dance, capoeira, voguing, the Chinese martial art wushu and catwalk for 26 dancers in iconic costumes ranging from Marilyn Monroe to American Indian chief. The dancers paint their bodies in bright colors from head to toe: orange, purple, green, gray, blue. Armitage originally created Rave in 2001, when she was resident choreographer for the French company Ballet de Lorraine, as a response to the events of September 11. That tragedy served merely as a point of departure for a work that is not preoccupied with mourning, but rather honors the dead with a carnivalesque sense of celebration.

In performing Rave, the Armitage Gone! Dance company—Sara Beery, Megumi Eda, Sean Hilton, Abbey Roesner, Bennyroyce Royon, Marlon Taylor-Wiles, Emily Wagner, Mei-Hua Wang, Jacob Michael Warren and Masayo Yamaguchi—will be joined by guest dancers from the Ailey School. The work features a commissioned score by David Shea, costumes by Peter Speliopoulosand lighting by Clifton Taylor.

Photo Credit: Devlin Shand