Quarter Turn: Sidra Bell Dance NY

Saturday, December 5: 6:00 PM
60 minutes, no intermission
$45 General Admission | $25 Student Admission (with student ID)
Black Box Theater
A brief Q + A will follow the performance in the Blax Box Theater. Stay after for a post-performance reception in the Studio Complex Lobby.

Sidra Bell Dance New York celebrates 25 years in Quarter Turn, a special night of performance at Kaatsbaan. The dance company performs two seminal works, Bacchanale (iteration) and excerpts from IN￨REP: Introspection. A brief Q&A and reception follow with objects on display from the company’s history and a toast in the Lobby Gallery.

Bacchanale (iteration) is a new work commissioned by the John Cage Trust and performed with a live pianist. In 1940, dancer Syvilla Fort asked John Cage to compose an African-inflected work, Bacchanale, to be premiered at the Cornish School in Seattle. With no room on stage for a percussion ensemble, Cage slipped screws, bolts, and weatherstripping between the strings of a grand piano, and the prepared piano was born.

The company will also perform excerpts from IN￨REP: Introspection, a Bessie Award–nominated retrospective that spans its first two decades into a single composition. Bell calls it “a tapestry of the past with hints of the future.” It premiered at Gibney in October 2022 and earned Bell a 2023 Bessie nomination for Outstanding Choreographer.

Photo by Chris Facey

A dancer framed by a circular hole in a sculpture has their right hand raised above their head and their left leg bent in front of their body. The photo is black and white.

Sidra Bell Dance New York (SBDNY) is a contemporary dance company founded in 2001 by choreographer Sidra Bell. The company is known for hyperkinetic movement and for combining dance, design, media, and fashion in a style all its own. Its immersive works explore identity, the human psyche, and the shape of time. SBDNY has performed throughout the US  internationally, including serving as a cultural ambassador in Bulgaria and Turkey. Creative residencies include New York Live Arts, Kelly Strayhorn Theater (Pittsburgh), ODC Theater (San Francisco), and Vara Konserthus (Sweden). SBDNY runs an extensive education and mentorship program for young artists and MODULE Laboratory offers an improvisation-based space for movement and theater artists of all generations.

This production has been made possible with funding from the John Cage Trust, New York State Council on the Arts, Danse Mirage Foundation, and Kaatsbaan Cultural Park.