BalletX Summer Series 2018

Penny Saunders
World Premiere
Original Music by Rosie Langabeer

Penny Saunders and Rosie Langabeer’s world premiere collaboration blends found sound, haunting melody, and live music to explore transience and permanence, destiny and free will. Saunders won the 2016 Princess Grace Choreographic Fellowship, previously creating on Hubbard Street Dance, Whim W’him, and Grand Rapids Ballet. Langabeer is a Barrymore Award winner for Outstanding Music and Musical Direction, and co-created Matthew Neenan’s Sunset, o639 Hours (2014).

Matthew Neenan
World Premiere
2018 Choreographic Mentor

Matthew Neenan’s new work is set to Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, performed live by Martha Koeneman (Principal pianist, Pennsylvania Ballet). The piece introduces a mysterious prop puzzle, which the choreographer and dancers solve together on stage, opening the piece to metaphoric possibilities beyond what meets the eye, and examining our perceptions of stillness and movement, object and person, conflict and resolution.

Andrew McNicol
World Premiere
2018 Choreographic Fellow

Andrew McNicol’s lifelong love of Mozart’s Requiem and his fascination with the energy, physicality and fast pace of dance in the U.S. forms the underlying inspiration for his world premiere with BalletX. Chosen from a competitive pool of international applicants, McNicol has created work for The London Olympics, The New York Choreographic Institute and The Royal Ballet of Flanders, and is described as “talented beyond his years” by Ballet News.

The Choreographic Fellowship is made possible by generous support from David Haas and the Wyncote Foundation.