Juilliard presents three dance premieres of newly commissioned choreography by Nicolo Fonte, Robert Battle, and Adam Hougland set to music of "Recovered Voices," Thursday, December 13 through Sunday, December 16 in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Five-Performance Series Features Works of Three Composers Touched by Nazi Germany: Schreker, Schulhoff and Zemlinsky

Three newly-commissioned works by Nicolo Fonte, Adam Hougland and Robert Battle will be premiered by the Juilliard Dance Ensemble in the program December Dance Creations directed by Lawrence Rhodes.  The five performances Thursday, December 13 – Sunday, December 16 in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Juilliard (155 W. 65th St.) are part of a collaboration with renowned conductor and Juilliard alumnus, James Conlon who begins a two-year residency at Juilliard conducting the Juilliard Orchestra for these performances. The dances, all of which are world premieres, are set to the music of three Recovered Voices – those whose lives were adversely altered by the Nazi regime – Franz Schreker, Erwin Schulhoff and Alexander Zemlinsky.

For years, James Conlon has championed the study and performance of repertoire from composers affected by the rise of Nazism and the events of WWII. Through programming and dialogue about the music of those suppressed, forced to emigrate, or executed by the Nazi regime, Mr. Conlon hopes to raise public awareness of their important, yet largely overlooked, repertoire.  The Juilliard Orchestra will bring several works of this historical significance to life during December Dance Creations.  Throughout his interaction with young artists, Mr. Conlon examines the relationship between art and society and encourages his students to connect to their craft with an historical perspective. 

Choreographer and Juilliard alumnus Adam Hougland (additional choreographer information below), sets his work on Juilliard’s second-year dance students to Franz Schreker’s Prelude to a Drama: The Stigmatized (Die Gezeichneten), composed in 1913. Die Gezeichneten is sometimes interpreted as The Marked Ones, or The Branded, however none of the English translations has the uncomfortable suggestion of the German phrase.  Mr. Hougland’s work incorporates innovative partnering throughout the ensemble piece against Schreker’s layered score. In 1932, Schreker was removed from his post as director of the Berlin Hochschule – a highly prestigious academic position in Germany, and one year later died after suffering a stroke while fighting Nazi authorities to regain his pension.  Thereafter, his music was banned.

Nicolo Fonte, whose choreography was most recently performed in New York during the Fall For Dance festival, has created his Juilliard premiere to Alexander Zemlinsky’s Sinfonietta (composed 1934; US premiere -- New   York Philharmonic/Dimitri Mitropoulos, December 1940). Mr. Fonte’s fresh vocabulary is executed in a stark atmosphere by Juilliard’s third-year dance students.  A highly-respected conductor throughout the German-speaking world, Zemlinsky was forced to flee the Nazis twice, eventually settling in New York.  There, he lived his remaining years in virtual isolation on Manhattan’s West Side.  At the time of his death in 1942, Sinfonietta was his only work performed live in the United States.

Robert Battle, artistic director of Battleworks and alumnus of Juilliard, has choreographed a new work for the Dance Division’s fourth-year students, set to Erwin Schulhoff’s percussive Ogelala, Op. 53 Ballettmysterium in its New York premiere.  Mr. Battle’s powerful ensemble phrases are stirred with images of flight and fatigue as dancers with sagging heads travel in military rows. Schulhoff’s music, composed between 1922-24 tells the story of a pre-Columbian Mexican warrior.  As an outspoken Marxist who had taken Soviet citizenship, he was sent to a concentration camp and in 1942 died of tuberculosis in Wülzburg camp.

Performances are Thursday, December 13 (8 PM), Friday, December 14 (8 PM), Saturday, December 15 (3 and 8 PM) and Sunday, December 16 (3 PM).  Entrance to the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Juilliard is at street level; 155 West 65th Street.  Tickets are $20, available at CenterCharge – (212) 721-6500 – and the Juilliard Box Office (212) 769-7406. The Juilliard Box Office is open Monday through Friday, 11 AM – 6 PM, and is located at 60 Lincoln Center Plaza – take the 65th Street elevator or escalator to plaza.  Half price tickets are on sale for students and seniors; and TDF is accepted only at the Juilliard Box Office.

Robert Battle , originally from Miami, Florida, is a graduate of the New World School of the Arts and holds a BFA in dance from The Juilliard School (’94). While at Juilliard he received the Princess Grace Dance Scholarship and the Martha Hill Prize and in 2005 he was honored at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with a medal proclaiming him one of the “Masters of African-American Choreography”. This year, the Princess Grace Foundation honored Mr. Battle with a Statute award, the Foundation’s highest honor.  As a member of the Parsons Dance Company (1994-2001), he began setting his work on the company which has been performed by Parsons in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Mr. Battle founded the Battleworks Dance Company in 2001 and has been commissioned by The Hubbard Street Repertory Ensemble, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Introdans, Dallas Black Dance Theater, Ruth Rosenberg Dance Ensemble, PARADIGM, Ballet Memphis, Ballet Idaho, Koresh Dance Company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the American Dance Festival for new works and re-stagings of Battleworks repertory.

Brooklyn native, Nicolo Fonte trained at the schools of the Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and New York City Ballet, and holds a BFA from SUNY Purchase. He began his career dancing with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal and Compañia Nacional de Danza, where he also choreographed three works for the Spanish company including En los Segundos Ocultos, (“In Hidden Seconds”).  Mr. Fonte has created and staged his ballets for The Dutch National Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Royal Ballet of Flanders, Stuttgart Ballet, The Australian Ballet, The Göteborg Ballet, Ballett Mainz, Ballett Nürnberg, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, TANZ Ensemble, Cedar Lake, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Tulsa Ballet, Ballet British Columbia and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal and received a Choo San Goh award for his 2002 collaboration with Pacific Northwest Ballet.  His current projects include work with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, The Australian Ballet and Oregon Ballet Theater.

Juilliard alumnus Adam Hougland (’99) was named principal choreographer for the Louisville Ballet in 2005 and premiered Devole and Made to Broken with the company.  He has been a member of the Toronto Dance Theater and the Limón Dance Company and was awarded the Hector Zaraspe prize for Outstanding Choreography.  Mr. Hougland has performed the works of Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovitch, José Limón, and Jiri Kylian.  His work Phantasy Quintet received the Choo-San Goh 2002 Award for choreography and a New York State Council for the Arts Commissioning Grant.  He also has created works for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, the Cedar Lake Dance Ensemble, Introdans in The Netherlands, and Chamber Dance Project and was a guest choreographer for The Yard at Martha’s Vineyard.  Mr. Hougland resides in New York City.