Juilliard Presents Spring Dances 2024 Featuring Works by Kyle Abraham, Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, and Shen Wei

NEW YORK, March 5, 2024––Juilliard presents the annual Spring Dances with five performances from March 27 through March 30, at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. This year’s Spring Dances presents recent works by living choreographers. Juilliard dancers from the classes of 2024-26 performing repertory works by choreographers Kyle Abraham, Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, and Shen Wei. Spring Dances 2024 highlights the collaboration among Juilliard’s student dancers, their peers from the music and drama divisions, and Juilliard alums. All three pieces on the program will feature live music.

“My mission during this time of transformation and growth is for our students to leave excited about stepping into the field knowing they are well versed in a range of repertory and techniques,” says Alicia Graf Mack, dean and director of the Dance Division. “Spring Dances 2024 brings works that are challenging both physically and mentally, requiring endurance, stamina, focus, and collaboration. I know our students are up to this challenge.”

This year’s program opens with Studies on a Farewell by Kyle Abraham. Performed by nine dancers, the work features music by Beethoven, Juilliard Arnhold Creative Associate Nico Muhly (MM ’04, composition), and an arrangement by Sebastian Bartmann of music by Bach; the live music is performed by Juilliard students. Abraham’s company premiered Part A of Studies on a Farewell at the Joyce Theater in 2019, and due to the pandemic, this is the first time Parts A and B will be presented together in full. This is the second time Juilliard Dance has collaborated with Abraham; his choreography was first presented at Juilliard as part of New Dances in 2015. 

Bobbi Jene Smith (’06, dance) and her partner, Or Schraiber, created Fugue in Crimson for the Batsheva Ensemble in 2022. The intimate work is a contemporary dance theater piece that explores the rhythmic and formal connections between music and movement. Fugue in Crimson brings together 10 dancers with music and drama students who play live music and recorded selections of Bach, Bizet, and French cabaret singer Barbara, with original compositions and arrangement by Yonatan Daskal. 

The final piece of the program is Shen Wei’s Map, which features the Juilliard Orchestra playing the chamber version of Steve Reich's (’61, composition) The Desert Music conducted by David Robertson, Juilliard’s director of conducting studies. The 40-minute work brings together 18 dancers, an orchestra, and a chorus of 10 singers to present dynamic, expanding movement reflecting Reich’s pulsing rhythmic melodies. Though this work was created for the Lincoln Center Festival in 2005,  this is the first time it will be presented with live music.  

Spring Dances performances take place at the Sharp Theater March 27-30 at 7:30pm as well as March 30 at 2pm. Tickets are available at the Juilliard box office or at juilliard.edu.

SPRING DANCES 2024
Wednesday, March 27 at 7:30pm
Thursday, March 28 at 7:30pm
Friday, March 29 at 7:30pm
Saturday, March 30 at 2 and 7:30pm

Peter Jay Sharp Theater
The Juilliard School, 155 W. 65th St., New York, NY 10023

Juilliard Dance (classes of 2024, 2025, and 2026)

Kyle Abraham                Studies on a Farewell
Four Studies by Nico Muhly
C Major by Sebastian Bartmann (based on The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 846, by Johann Sebastian Bach)
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2, “Moonlight”: III. Presto Agitato by Ludwig van Beethoven

Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber    Fugue in Crimson 
Partita No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 826: I. Sinfonia by Johann Sebastian Bach
“Train” by Yonatan Daskal
“La Solitude” by Barbara
“Mi Par D’udir Ancora” by Georges Bizet, performed by Enrico Caruso

Shen Wei                Map
The Desert Music by Steve Reich

Juilliard’s creative enterprise programming, including the Creative Associates program, is generously sponsored by Jody and John Arnhold and the Arnhold Foundation.

About Kyle Abraham
About Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber 
About Shen Wei

About Juilliard Dance
Under the direction of Alicia Graf Mack, Juilliard Dance develops artists of the 21st century trained in ballet, modern, and contemporary dance forms. With the establishment of the dance division in 1951—by then-president William Schuman with the guidance of founding division director Martha Hill—Juilliard became the first major teaching institution to combine equal instruction in both modern and ballet techniques.

In the four-year dance program—leading to a bachelor of fine arts degree—students learn the great traditions of both past and present. Juilliard dancers enjoy unparalleled opportunities to work with today’s leading choreographers and perform both new and existing repertory. In addition to high caliber training and performances, dancers learn about the craft of choreography and immerse themselves in other facets of the field. Located at Lincoln Center in New York City, Juilliard prepares dancers for all the possibilities that lie ahead. 

Juilliard dance alumni include the choreographers and directors Robert Battle, Pina Bausch, Jessica Lang, Lar Lubovitch, Sylvia Waters, Bobbi Jene Smith, Andrea Miller, Ohad Naharin, and Paul Taylor. Juilliard dancers are currently dancing in Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballet BC, Ballets Jazz Montréal, L.A. Dance Project, Limón Dance Company, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Ballett des Saarländisches Staatstheater, Kidd Pivot, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Hispánico, Boston Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Rambert, Gibney Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and Batsheva Dance Company, among many others, as well as in several Broadway productions.

The Juilliard Dance Division, proud recipient of the 2015 Capezio Award, was the first educational institution to receive the honor.

About The Juilliard School
Founded in 1905, The Juilliard School is a world leader in performing arts education. The school’s mission is to provide the highest caliber of artistic education for gifted musicians, dancers, and actors, composers, choreographers, and playwrights from around the world so that they may achieve their fullest potential as artists, leaders, and global citizens. Juilliard is led by Damian Woetzel, seventh president of the school, who has prioritized affordability and access to the highest level of artistic education, while championing Juilliard’s tradition of excellence.

Located at Lincoln Center in New York City, Juilliard offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, drama (acting and playwriting), and music (classical, jazz, historical performance, and vocal arts). Currently more than 800 artists from 42 states and 50 countries and regions are enrolled in Juilliard’s College Division, where they appear in more than 700 annual performances in the school’s five theaters; at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and David Geffen halls and at Carnegie Hall; as well as at other venues around New York City, the country, and the world. The continuum of learning at Juilliard also includes nearly 400 students from elementary through high school enrolled in the Preparatory Division, including its Music Advancement Program (MAP), which serves students from diverse backgrounds often underrepresented in the classical music field. More than 1,200 students are enrolled in Juilliard Extension, the flagship continuing education program taught both in person and remotely by a dedicated faculty of performers, creators, and scholars. Beyond its New York campus, Juilliard is defining new directions in performing arts education for a range of learners and enthusiasts through a global K-12 educational curricula and preparatory and graduate studies at The Tianjin Juilliard School in China.

juilliard.edu | @juilliardschool

CONTACTS:
Allegra Thoresen
[email protected]

Image: By Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy Juilliard, NY

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