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Hedwig Dances, a Chicago-based contemporary dance theater ensemble, known for its theatricality and originality, will present FIELD THEORY on two nights only, April 8 and 9, 2022 at 7:30 PM at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, Chicago. Each evening includes two dance premieres; LightPlay by Jan Bartoszek and Raw Concrete by Rigo Saura. A post-performance conversation in the theater with the choreographers will follow the performance on Friday, April 8.
Both dances take their inspiration from major modernist design movements of the 20th century.
Jan Bartoszek's LightPlay explores transparencies and the shifting perceptions arising from cascading layers of movement and fluctuating light forms. LightPlay continues Bartoszek’s exploration of the Bauhaus and is inspired by the work of Laszlo Moholy- Nagy. In this dance, Bartoszek delves deeper into abstraction and visual metaphor. Her collaborators include theater artist and writer Sharon Evans; New York-based sound designer and composer Erica Ricketts; visual artist Eileen Ryan; and costume designer Eduardo Sosa.
In Raw Concrete, Saura takes his inspiration from Brutalism, the architectural style which emerged in the 50's, which grew out of the century’s modernist movement. Saura’s conceptual approach is to create a raw, disordered, unadorned style, using the body as the base, sourcing movement from its most vulnerable state. Saura collaborates with costume designer Eduardo Sosa, and original music is composed by Spain-based Alex Melo of Malamuzamusic.
About the Choreographers
Jan Bartoszek is an American choreographer. Through her interdisciplinary dance work, she fosters a spirit of collaboration with other artists; merging choreography, objects, media, text, and music to create dances that resonate with complexity and depth. Ms. Bartoszek has choreographed over 70 dances, presenting them in Chicago’s vibrant theaters, national performance venues, and internationally in Cuba, Germany, Honduras, Mexico, Brazil and Canada. Her dance work has garnered numerous accolades including an Emmy-nomination for her film Arch of Repose and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Performance Network, NEFA/RDDI, the MacArthur International Connections Fund, and the Illinois Arts Council, among others. The Chicago Dance Coalition granted her a Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Dance Community for “through her work at the Chicago Cultural Center, serving as an educator, mentor, presenter, administrator, and promoter of dance in the city with inspirational excellence.” Currently, she is engaged in a multi-year partnership with Torsten Blume, research assistant at the Bauhaus Foundation in Dessau, Germany, which explores multiple facets of the Bauhaus modernist movement.
Rigoberto Saura graduated from the National School of Modern and Contemporary Dance in Havana, Cuba and was a member of the National School of Dance faculty. Mr. Saura is a former soloist with Danza Contemporánea de Cuba where he worked with internationally recognized choreographers: Mats Ek and Ana Laguna, Itzik Galili, Juan Kruz (Sasha Waltz and Guests), Osnel Delgado (Malpaso Dance Company), and Rafael Bonachela (Sydney Dance Company). He moved to Quito, Ecuador as Assistant Choreographer with the Pepe Hevia Dance Company. During this time he was also a soloist with the National Ballet of Ecuador and resident choreographer in Ecuador’s Urban Ballet, as well as Composition Master of the Metropolitan School of Art. Since relocating to Chicago, Mr. Saura is a resident dancer, teacher, and guest choreographer at Hedwig Dances, the Ruth Page Center for the Arts and Concert Dance, Inc. He was a winner of the DuPage Choreography Showcase and Competition and has created works for Danceworks New Dances 2019 and for the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company. Mr. Saura is currently engaged in a robust performance/choreography schedule with local, national, and international companies.
