Bates Dance Festival: Bridgman | Packer present work inspired by artist Hopper
Bridgman | Packer Dance performs “Voyeur,” a multimedia work inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper. Photograph by Arthur Fink.
Blending dance, video and something of the sensibility of painter Edward Hopper, Bridgman | Packer Dance brings “Voyeur,” their newest work, to the 2013 Bates Dance Festival.
Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Aug. 2-3, in Bates College’s air-conditioned Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St. For more information, please click visit the website.
Tickets are $25 for the general public, $18 for seniors and $12 for students. Tickets may be purchased:
- online;
- by phone at 207-786-6161 from 1-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday;
- or by mail or in person. Learn more about Bates Dance Festival ticketing.
Bridgman | Packer Dance holds a talkback immediately after Friday’s performance. Dance writer Hannah Kosstrin gives an Inside Dance lecture at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3, in Schaeffer.
Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer are known for integrating video into dance — making it, in effect, their third dance partner. In “Voyeur,” they push into new territory choreographically, thematically and technologically. Inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper, “Voyeur” presents fragments of private lives playing out on a set whose windows and doorways permit the audience to be, like Hopper, “one who looks.”
Bridgman and Packer have collaborated as performers and choreographers since 1978. Their innovative work is acclaimed for its highly visual and visceral alchemy of the live and the virtual. In 2008 they received the first Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to two individuals for collaborative work.
Recipients of numerous other honors, they have been presented by the New York City Center Fall for Dance Festival; Lincoln Center; Baryshnikov Arts Center; the Harkness Dance Center, at the 92nd Street Y in New York City; Dance Theater Workshop; Danspace Project; Dance New Amsterdam; and Central Park SummerStage. They have toured throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and Central America.
More about the Bates Dance Festival
The Bates Dance Festival, a summer series of renowned contemporary dance, is in its fourth decade as a leading American dance center. The festival is an important laboratory for artists noted for important contributions to the contemporary dance lexicon. In addition to presenting these dancemakers who have experienced significant artistic growth through the festival, the BDF continues to welcome emerging choreographers.
Founded in 1982 at Bates College, the Bates Dance Festival brings together an international community of contemporary choreographers, performers, educators and students in a cooperative community to study, perform and create new work.
The festival serves as an annual destination for artists, students and audiences to engage in a full range of dance activities and performances that foster a creative exchange of ideas, encourage exploration of new ground and afford access to a wide spectrum of dance and movement disciplines.
