Production Language English
Country of Origin United States
Description A vanguard expressionist choreographer with a deeply humane streak, David Roussève weaves dance, performance art, spoken word, and music into a rich tapestry of images, sounds and metaphors. In his new work, Love Songs, surreal film-like images invoke a down-at-the-rafters ballroom where memories mingle with mythology and spirits collide.
In a radical departure, Roussève abandons the popular and gospel music of past works in favor of Schubert, Chopin and arias by Wagner and Puccini. Performed by the keenly trained dancers of REALITY and a large chorus culled from BAM's local community, Love Songs tells the heart-rending tale of two slaves in love desperate to escape their cruel master. As in all of Roussève's work, the narrative provides a scaffold for the union of seemingly unrelated elements - a Seurat painting, southern cotton fields, Wagner's "Liebestod" from Tristan and Isolde - that converge and enrich his theme: the ultimately mystifying essence of love.
"Heaven and hell, history and fantasy, monsters, saints, and contemporary mixed-up urbanites... (a work of) terrific power and inspiration" (Washington Post).
Identifier 1999f.00671
