And down south at the nation's other august summer dance attraction, the AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL, in Durham, N.C., the first full week opens with performances by the gritty, cheeky URBAN BUSH WOMEN on Tuesday and Wednesday and concludes, Thursday through Saturday, with Pilobolus, a festival favorite for the muscular visual fantasy of its repertory.
But when Scott plunges into the existential void, choosing to shrink to the subatomic level — a maneuver that may cost him his life — Reed devises a phantasmagorical visual correlate for that heroic leap, a repertory of images that suggest inner realms of infinitesimal adventure far more thrilling than the extravagantly large-scale ones that usually drub viewers into submission.
Each will present repertory — and Ms. Melnick's gorgeously textured "Fanfare" features visual design by the artist Burt Barr, who happens to be Ms. Brown's husband — but the highlight of the program might just prove to be "July," a new duet commissioned by the Pillow and created by Ms. Melnick and Mr. Neumann.
If the Philharmonic were interested in being regarded as a vital, contemporary institution, it might have taken an exploration of the connections between aural and visual timbre as an opportunity to mine the kaleidoscopic new-music repertory and used the theme to provide helpful landmarks for its audience.
Fairchild, who performs like a counterculture Gena Rowlands, is irresistibly passionate and volatile even in repose, and Shults displays a bold visual and dramatic sensibility with his impressionistic rearrangement of time and his repertory of darting, whirling, plunging, and retreating camera moves, which seem to paint the action onto the screen.
Mr. Saint paces the play's action gently yet steadily, and his well-acted production — which transfers to the Seattle Repertory Theater in March with the same ensemble — is enhanced by thoughtful visuals.
His goal is simply to combine sound, visuals and movement in new ways and, in the process, modify instruments to extend their repertory beyond human limitations.
Starkly arresting visual tableaus, dramatically beautiful lighting and deliberately stylized gesture are among the tools with which he has created a repertory of epic-scale theater, opera and dance works.
Hans van Manen still ranks as the signature choreographer of Dutch National Ballet, despite the company's evolving repertory – and this homage to Van Manen's work gives UK audiences an unusually focused view of the visual complexity and musical sophistication of its style.
