The Forsythe Company

Thu, Feb 22, 8 pm
Fri, Feb 23, 8 pm

Venue: Zellerbach Hall A

Price: $32/$46/$58

Subscription Series: Choose-Your-Own, Dance Series A

William Forsythe is renowned for combining choreographic invention with a distinct theatrical vision, and his work is celebrated for redirecting the practice of ballet from its identification with classical repertoire into a dynamic 21st-century art form. Artistic director of Ballett Frankfurt for over 20 years, Forsythe has evolved from ballet's "bad boy" into one of the world's most respected figures in dance. These performances mark the highly anticipated first visit to the Bay Area by his newly founded ensemble, The Forsythe Company. "This is dance-theater at its most mysterious and expansive. Forsythe has outclassed himself" (The Guardian, London).

Baryshnikov Dance Foundation presents
Hell's Kitchen Dance
with Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Jonathon Alsberry, Aszure Barton, William Briscoe, Tina Finkelman, Ariel Freedman, Lesley Kennedy, Na-Ye Kim, Doug Letheren, Todd McQuade, Lauren Muraski, Ian Robinson, Kyle Robinson, and Ashley Wallace
Choreography by Aszure Barton and Benjamin Millepied
Videography by Kevin Freeman and Olivier Simola

Thu, Jun 15, 8 pm
Fri, Jun 16, 8 pm
Sat, Jun 17, 8 pm
Sun, Jun 18, 3 pm

Venue: Zellerbach Playhouse

Price: $60

"No dancer has been more exceptional than Mikhail Baryshnikov, and no quest more exciting and rewarding than his," says The New York Times of this master of reinvention's restless explorations into the future of modern dance. Baryshnikov returns to Cal Performances with another glimpse at that exciting frontier in this program of works created entirely at the newly opened Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) in New York, built to be a creative laboratory, meeting place, and performing space for a vibrant community of experimental artists from dance, music, theater, film, design and visual arts. Featuring dancing by Baryshnikov himself and a hand-picked troupe of young dancers, the West Coast premiere of Hell's Kitchen Dance spotlights three new works from two of BAC's most sensational artists-in-residence: audacious Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton, winner of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's National Choreographic Competition, and New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Benjamin Millepied.

Program: Benjamin Millepied/Years Later; Aszure Barton/Come In; Over Come

Sylvie Guillem & Akram Khan
Sacred Monsters

Sat, May 5, 8 pm
Sun, May 6, 7 pm

Venue: Zellerbach Hall B

Price: $32/$48/$68/$86

Subscription Series: Choose-Your-Own, Special Events B

Perhaps the world's most celebrated ballerina, Sylvie Guillem—formerly Rudolf Nureyev's protégé, reigning star of the Paris Opera Ballet, and longtime principal guest artist at the Royal Ballet—has scored memorable triumphs with many of today's most gifted dance-makers. Here she teams up with choreographer and dancer Akram Kahn, a third-generation British Asian who brings vitality to cross-cultural expression, fusing Western contemporary dance with Indian classical kathak dance. Their ambitious new collaboration explores the notion of male and female energies as spiritual forces rooted in creation stories/myths (East/West, Adam/Eve, Heaven/Earth, Light/Dark, etc.). Comprised of solos and duos by both artists, the program features additional choreography by Lin Hwai-min, artistic director of Taiwan's Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, as well as live musical accompaniment written and performed (along with vocalists and percussion) by cellist Phillip Sheppard.