Contemporary Dance Theatre New York
"What a stunning treasure this Company and its Choreographer are! ---seamless, sensuous and refreshingly progressive, Contemporary Dance Theatre New York is liquidly sensual...clean, expressive, visceral, gestural...imparting a richness of movement rarely seen...there’s a sheer physical joy that pulses inside and you merge with the action on stage as if you were a part of the plan from the moment the lights go up and the music begins...”
Tricia Goff, Dance Magazine
" ... clearly the product of people working hard as a team ... best of all, a large company of sleek, attractive dancers at home in a mixture of ballet, modern dance and jazz styles."
Jack Anderson, The New York Times
Founded by Jennifer Kries in 1997, CDTNY made its debut, "Heart Protector" at the Merce Cunningham Studio to rave reviews. The company then enjoyed another spectacular run at Lincoln Center's Clark Studio Theater in March, 1999 with its Season Premier, "Trust Me, A Dark Fairytale", choreographed by Jennifer Kries and Marcus Tesch, written by Susan Eve Haar, directed by Benjamin Krevolin, and set design by Richard Negre. Guest performers at CDTNY's Lincoln Center performances included Alvin Ailey's Antonio Carlos Scott, Michael Blake and Lakey Evans.
Jennifer Kries, artistic director and principal choreographer combines her incomparable artistic vision with years of performance to create New York's first Dance Theater company. CDTNY is a contemporary model of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes that ruled the art scene in Europe before taking the dance front by storm here in New York in the twenties and thirties. The Ballets Russes represented a standard in collaborative genius. In 1929, Diaghilev as director, was a pioneer in his conceptual approach to dance as theater, bringing together the finest talents in writing, costume, set design, music and lighting. He truly set a precedent and created the first "dance-theater", which until CDTNY was lost to a European sensibility. CDTNY was created in an effort to reinstate this Aristotelian concept of total theater marrying movement, music and text to create greater depth and dimension. The movement is a synthesis of many styles: ballet, modern, jazz, Flamenco and folk dance among others, that along with text creates a story --- a total concept that breaks convention and gives birth to fantasy. Inspired by the work of many masters, among them, Forsythe and Bausch, Kries uses an eclectic blend of music, and while her work is high art, it can be appreciated without being over-analyzed, admired for its entertainment value alone.
The company is a celebration of dance and drama. Kries has taken themes of renaissance masters who preceded her and contemporized them, sythesizing the strongest elements to develop a dance theater genre as before unseen by the American dance public. CDTNY is an evolution, combining the beauty of a great classical ballet with all the fire and verve of jazz. You are not a casual observer when you watch a performance of CDTNY ; the action draws you in, asks you to participate emotionally and makes question your feelings. Your heart races. Your pulse quickens. Your mind travels with the action on stage and takes you to a place where time stops and the imagination runs wild. CDTNY sets the standard for new and courageous work in American dance-theater today.
Supporters of Contemporary Dance Theatre New York
CDTNY, Inc.
167 Perry Street Suite 3J
New York
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Arousing*Colorful*ALIVE!Click here for images from the Contemporary Dance Theatre New York's production of Trust Me, A Dark Fairytale, Heart Protector and Right Here.