Frankenstein, zombies, and characters of Edgar Allen Poe come to life in this family friendly performance steeped in spooky delight and tragic majesty. MPLS (imPulse) opens its tenth season as featured performers with James Sewell Ballet.
Anchoring the performance is a new choral ballet titled Unfashioned Creature, devised by composer Timothy C. Takach and choreographer Penelope Freeh. The work is poetically rooted in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and explores key aspects relating to personhood: otherness, abandonment, despair, and hopeful yearning. The music features cello, percussion, and MPLS (imPulse), who will perform a fractured libretto comprising Shelley’s text. Also on the program are remounts of two Sewell fall favorites: excerpts from "Takes on Poe" (2012); and "Grave Matters" (2011), which combines undead charm and morbid wit in a playful zombie ballet.
Anchoring the performance is a new choral ballet titled Unfashioned Creature, devised by composer Timothy C. Takach and choreographer Penelope Freeh. The work is poetically rooted in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and explores key aspects relating to personhood: otherness, abandonment, despair, and hopeful yearning. The music features cello, percussion, and MPLS (imPulse), who will perform a fractured libretto comprising Shelley’s text. Also on the program are remounts of two Sewell fall favorites: excerpts from "Takes on Poe" (2012); and "Grave Matters" (2011), which combines undead charm and morbid wit in a playful zombie ballet.
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Saturday, Oct. 28
2:00 & 7:30 pm The O'Shaugnessy at St. Catherine's University Tickets: $5 - $34 Official show page and tickets here. The approximate run time is 105 minutes with one fifteen minute intermission. |
James Sewell Ballet was founded in New York City by James Sewell and Sally Rousse and brought to Minnesota in 1993. Combining their expertise, vision and chutzpah, they envisioned a close-knit company of dance artists willing to both challenge their physical limits and expand their notions about ballet. Over three decades later, critically acclaimed JSB performances move and delight audiences across the country. The embodiment of the original vision is a professional company of dancers performing innovative work that explores the technical boundaries of ballet.Based in the Twin Cities, James Sewell Ballet studios are located at The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts in Downtown Minneapolis. Annual spring and fall JSB performances are currently presented at The Goodale Theater in The Cowles Center. JSB’s annual cutting edge “Ballet Works Project,” featuring new works by emerging and established choreographers, is presented at the JSB TEK BOX on the second floor of The Cowles Center.
About the Choreographer
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Dance artist and educator Penelope Freeh thoughtfully transforms how contemporary ballet is transmitted and embodied. Sitting in the question of how aesthetics shape content and meaning, she makes new dance performance. Heightened theatricality, intimate gesture, coding, and visual design elements reveal deeply personal content. Collaborations include creating the dance opera Test Pilot with composer Jocelyn Hagen. It premiered and won a Sage Award for Best Overall Design in 2014 and toured Minnesota in 2016. Freeh was on the design team for Minnesota Opera’s The Song Poet (libretto by Kao Kalia Yang, score by Jocelyn Hagen, stage direction by Rick Shiomi, conducted by Tiffany Chang) and is currently creating Unfashioned Creature with composer Timothy C. Takach, James Sewell Ballet and MPLS(imPulse). Freeh is a McKnight Fellow for Choreographers (2014, 2010), McKnight Fellow for Dancers (1998), and Sage awardee for Outstanding Performer (2010). Her work is in the repertoires of Alternative Motion Project, Gem City Ballet, James Sewell Ballet, Minnesota Ballet, Minnesota Dance Theatre, and Zenon Dance Company among others. Residencies include the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University and the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France. Freeh danced with James Sewell Ballet for seventeen years, serving as Artistic Associate from 2007-11. She is a Lecturer at the University of Minnesota, adjunct Assistant Professor at St. Olaf College, and this Fall is serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Hollins University where she earned a Dance MFA.
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About the Composer |
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Inspired by captivating narrative, speculative fiction and making better humans through art, the music of Timothy C. Takach has risen fast in the concert world. Applauded for his melodic lines, thoughtful text choices and rich, intriguing harmonies, Takach has received commissions and performances from GRAMMY Award-winning ensembles Roomful of Teeth and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the St. Olaf Band, Cantus, U.S. Army Field Band and Soldiers’ Chorus, Lorelei Ensemble, VocalEssence, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, The Rose Ensemble, and numerous other organizations. His compositions have been performed on A Prairie Home Companion, The Boston Pops holiday tour, PBS, many All-State and festival programs and at venues such as the Library of Congress, Kennedy Center and Royal Opera House Muscat. He is a co-creator of the theatrical production of All is Calm: the Christmas Truce of 1914, by Peter Rothstein.
Takach studied music composition at St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, and has frequent national work as a composer-in-residence, presenter, clinician and lecturer. He is a full-time composer and lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two sons. |
