“This masterly work … incorporates bits of ballet, gestures ordinary and obsessive, formal invention and flares of drama, the virtuosic and the casual, all treated equally … but each moment is strikingly singular.” —New York Times
MINNEAPOLIS, March 2, 2015— For his return to the Walker after an eight-year absence, choreographer Tere O’Connor collapses three recent dance works into a single choreographic exploration. In BLEED, O’Connor examines ways that disparate cultures blend in a symbiotic relationship through full-bodied virtuosity and enigmatic intrigue. Tere O’Connor Dance performs BLEED Thursday–Saturday, March 19–21, 8 pm in the William and Nadine McGuire Theater. BLEED features 11 of the most distinctive and accomplished movement practitioners in the country, including Heather Olson, David Thomson, Cynthia Oliver, Hilary Clark, and Silas Riener, who expertly balance the ruminative and the playful with captivating results. Though a respected innovator in New York’s contemporary dance scene, O’Connor makes works for everyone—full of humor, humanity, and wit—and seems wholly aware that an “uncompromising investigation of choreography as a mirror of human consciousness doesn’t have to exclude fun” (New York Times).
About Tere O’Connor
O’Connor is Artistic Director of Tere O’Connor Dance. He has created over 40 works for his company and toured these throughout the US, Europe, South America, and Canada. He has created numerous commissioned works for other dance companies, including the Lyon Opera Ballet, White Oak Dance Project, and solo works for Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jean Butler. O’Connor received a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, is a 2009 United States Artist Rockefeller Fellow, and a 1993 Guggenheim Fellow among numerous other grants and awards. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts/National Dance Project, The MAP Fund, and many others. He has received three “BESSIES”, New York Dance and Performance Awards. In October 2014, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. An articulate and provocative educator, O’Connor has taught at festivals and universities around the globe for 25 years. He is a Center for Advanced Studies Professor of Dance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he lives for one semester each year. O’Connor is an active participant in the New York dance community mentoring young artists, teaching, writing, and volunteering in various capacities. BLEED, premiered at BAM’s Next Wave festival in December 2013 and continues to tour the United States with upcoming stops at On the Boards in Seattle and The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. The company presented a week of encore performances of BLEED at Danspace Project in New York City in December 2014 and they presented two works at the American Realness Festival in January 2015, Sister and undersweet in NYC.
Tickets to Tere O’Connor Dance’s BLEED are: $28 ($24 Walker members) and are available at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling 612.375.7600
Meet the Artists
Postshow Reception
Thursday, March 19
Meet the artists after the performance at a reception in the McGuire Theater’s Balcony Bar.
Postshow Q & A
Friday, March 20
Stay after the show for a Q&A with Tere O’Connor and dance artist/Walker Project Manager, Anat Shinar.
SpeakEasy
Saturday, March 21
After the performance, head to the Balcony Bar to join a discussion or just listen in as others hash it out. This SpeakEasy conversation will be hosted by a tour guide and dance artist Theresa Madaus.
Master Class with Tere O’Connor
Saturday, March 21, 11am–1pm
William and Nadine McGuire Theater, Walker Art Center
$10 ($6 Walker members)
In this workshop led by New York–based choreographer Tere O’Connor, participants will construct dances and analyze the motivation behind their choices. For intermediate/advance dancers; limited to 30 participants.
Acknowledgments
Support provided by Producers’ Council members Leni and David Moore, Jr. / The David and Leni Moore Family Foundation. The Walker Art Center’s performing arts programs are made possible by generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation through the Doris Duke Performing Arts Fund, the William and Nadine McGuire Commissioning Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Producers’ Council
Performing Arts programs and commissions at the Walker are generously supported by members of the Producers’ Council: Russell Cowles; Nor Hall and Roger Hale; King’s Fountain/Barbara Watson Pillsbury and Henry Pillsbury; Emily Maltz; Dr. William W. and Nadine M. McGuire; Leni and David Moore, Jr.; Josine Peters; Mike and Elizabeth Sweeney; and Frances and Frank Wilkinson.