PROGRAM A: Performance on April 4th at 8 PM

-WORLD PREMIERE
-“Bist du bei Mir, Through The Panes”
   A short duet to Bach's Stolzel: Bist Du Bei Mir,
   “If you are with me, I go with joy”
   “And take me by the hand”
   “With joy and happiness”
   “To my death and to my rest”
    Alison was inspired by the music, Love and Home.
-Intermission
- “Heroic Departure”
    HEROIC DEPARTURE is inspired and based on the American Heroine Amelia Earhart and her life and final journey of departure around the world. Guided by the brilliant music of Dylan Mattingly, Alison researched Amelia’s life’s work and found movement from an emotional place, asking herself what it would FEEL like to fly, to have the wind swirl around you, to have a plane fall from the sky.

Pause

 “Central Park Field #4”
“Central Park Field #4”, in both setting and form, reflected the shattering of the New York dance community during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. A site-specific work, the baseball field location was a direct consequence of the shutting down of indoor artistic venues, while the choreography keeping the dancers 6-feet apart was the manifestation of social distancing. The piece was created literally in the shadows of the Central Park field hospitals, and the beginning segments explored the melancholy and despair of isolation experienced by the survivors. However, as the fall brought a temporary reprieve from the worst conditions, her work presents a transformative resolution. Even socially distant, it shows New Yorkers enduring the isolation with energy and stamina, in Ms. Cook-Beatty’s most physically draining choreography of her career. The piece was shown on ABC NEWS among media outlets and for a week in Taxi Cabs in NYC.
This site-specific work has been restaged for the theater and performed on stages multiple times across the country in NY, CT, MA, and TN.

Q&A session, 10-15 minutes

PROGRAM B: Performance on April 5th at 8 PM
-"FIRE" (World Premiere) and "WATER (NYC Premiere)
"WATER" is a dynamic and visceral exploration of the fluidity and power of water, inspired during the development stage by Emily Dickinson's evocative poem "Wild Nights.” While the poem informs the creative process, it is not directly incorporated into the piece itself. With a cast of six dancers, and guided by choreographic dramaturg Erika Batdorf during our residency at Kaatsbaan in 2024, Alison Cook-Beatty developed a deeper understanding of movement and expression, choreographing a work that speaks to connections and tensions in human interactions. The music of John Adams' Harmonium drives the work, enhancing its emotional depth with sweeping orchestrations and choral textures. Through dynamic formations and intricate partnering, "WATER" visually represents currents, swells, and stillness. This captivating journey immerses viewers in the beauty and intensity of life through the lens of nature’s most powerful element, capturing longing, connection, and the relentless passage of time.

-Intermission
-“Heroic Departure”
Pause
-“Bist du bei Mir, Through The Panes”
- “Whale”
WHALE is set to the music of John Cage and Arvo Part and is inspired by the Emmy Award Winning New Zealand story/ film The Whale Rider by female director Niki Caro and the paintings of Sang-Hyun Chung. In both the movie and the music there is a recurring theme of call and response that is infused into the choreography. The story follows: Only males are allowed to ascend to chiefdom in a Maori tribe in New Zealand. This ancient custom is upset when the child selected to be the next chief dies at birth. However his twin sister, Pai (dancer Ava Trochiano) survives.. She enlists the help of her grandmother (dancer Hannah Dillenbeck) to claim her birthright. But to break with convention, she'll have to do the impossible: win over her ultra-traditional grandfather (dancer Gion Trechlier).

Q&A session, 10-15 minutes

CAST
Core Company Members of Alison Cook Beatty Dance:
Ava Trochiano
Gion Treichler
Hannah Dillenbeck
Ioanna Ioannides
Maddie Burnett
Plus additional guest artists:
Dancers: Rayan Lecurieux-Durival, Teryn Trent, and Elizabeth Szendrody with musician and song writer Mark Daniel (only on April 5th) 

Bios can be found on www.alisoncookbeattydance.org under Artistic Personal.