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"Varvara" is an explosive evening-length solo dance performance choreographed and performed by Jenna Riegel. A response to the life and art of prominent Russian Constructivist Varvara Stepanova, the piece weaves together Riegel's world with Stepanova’s through an interplay of what is real and what is imagined.Konstantin Rudnitsky wrote, “The human body was perceived as a machine: man had to learn to control that machine. It was the theatre’s function to demonstrate the fine-tuning of the human ‘mechanisms.’” Varvara tests this Constructivist theory of theatre’s function by observing the body’s reaction to considering it as mechanized and efficient versus allowing it to be chaotic and unpredictable.
The work runs ~45 minutes and is performed in two parts with no intermission. Part one hones in on stylized bodily control, emphasizing the angular and geometric lines seen in Stepanova’s artwork through technical virtuosity and an industrialized movement vocabulary. Part two breaks free from the constraints of this kind of Meyerholdian view of the body and unleashes a wild, circular, and destabilized approach to the performance.
Motion State Arts is thrilled to present the only Rhode Island performance of this piece.
Jenna will also be teaching a public workshop open to all, Sunday, November 8, 10am–noon at the Wilbury. Info/RSVP: https://motionstatearts.org/varvara
Jenna Riegel, originally from Fairfield, Iowa, is a dance artist and movement educator. During her 11-year performing career in New York City, she toured and performed nationally and internationally as a company member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, David Dorfman Dance, Alexandra Beller/Dances and Bill Young/Colleen Thomas & Company. She also danced with Daara Dance (choreographer Michel Kouakou), Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, Shaneeka Harrell, Tania Isaac Dance and johannes weiland. She has been on faculty in the dance departments of Barnard College, The Juilliard School and Virginia Commonwealth University and at the American Dance Festival and the Bates Dance Festival. Jenna is currently an Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance at Amherst College.
Photo: Derek Fowles
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Event venue
The Wilbury Theatre Group, 12 Eagle St, Providence, RI 02908-5657, United States
Tickets
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