Coming Up at The Cowles: Black Label Movement
For Immediate Release
BLM & The Bakken Trio Join Forces:
Black Label Movements 4th Cowles Center for Dance Season Features the Twin Cities Premiere of Carl Flinks Alleged Dances set to the music of John Adams and Commissioned and Performed Live by Special Guests The Bakken Trio
Pioneering minimalist composer John Adams threw down the gauntlet when he named his 1994 electrified string quartet Johns Book of Alleged Dances, daring choreographers to invent the steps to complete his musical vision. The composers wildly energetic work made up of ten sections with quirky names, such as Toot Nipple and Stubble Crochet, is based on old dance forms like the pavane and the reel that Adams transformed into radiant harmonies punctuated by the frenetic and unexpected rhythms of contemporary life.
Originally performed by the Kronos Quartet, Minnesota based The Bakken Trio chamber music consortium commissioned artistic director Carl Flink and Black Label Movement (BLM) to take up Adamss gauntlet and choreograph the entire Book. The College of St. Benedict & St. Johns University Fine Arts Programming Series will present the world premiere of Alleged Dances at its Gorecki Family Theater on Feb. 13, 2015 before BLM and the Bakken Trio return to give the Twin Cities premiere of the work at the Cowles Center for Dance, March 5-7, 2015, including a student matinee on March 6. Classical Minnesota Public Radio correspondent Jay Gabler declared after a sneak peak of some sections from Alleged Dances at the Bakken Trios 2014 fall season at the MacPhail Center, Flink was an apt choice for the commission: his intensely physical, highly precise style is a perfect match for Adams's brawny yet brainy strain of post-modernism. Nov. 17, 2014.
Alleged Dances is a close collaboration between kindred artistic spirits. BLM and Bakken share a common passion for physicality and virtuosity, where soloists leap to the fore and then quickly meld into the ensemble. Flink expressed, The chance to tackle the challenge issued by John Adams with Johns Book in collaboration with the sinewy artistry of the Bakken ensemble is a choreographers dream.
Acclaimed for 20 years for its intensity, refinement and utterly convincing playing, the Bakken Trio has been recognized with a McKnight Fellowship for its artistry and challenging but accessible mix of traditional chamber music and modern compositions. They have recorded music written for them by Dan Visconti, Jeff Brooks and Joseph Waters and have championed composers such as Kenji Bunch, James MacMillan, and Jennifer Higdon.
BLMs 4th Cowles Center season also includes the Twin Cities premiere of Flinks pulsing An Unkindness of Ravens, commissioned and premiered by the 2014 American Dance Festivals Footprints Series in Durham, NC, July 24, 2014. An unkindness is an archaic name for a group of ravens on the hunt for prey. North Carolinas Triangle Arts & Entertainment observed, Carl Flink created a darkly intense world inhabited by dancers in dusty street clothes. . . There is throughout the piece a feeling of eat or be eaten only in a figurative sense, of course, but fear-inducing just the same. July 25, 2014. The work features an original dark ambient composition by Twin Cities composer Greg Brosofske.
The program will be completed by Flinks audience favorite, A Duet for Wreck (2006).
The BLM Mission:
Work Hard >>> Creating challenging, physical movement theater requires hard work
Embrace Risk >>> Too much caution and control rarely leads to powerful art
Challenge Always >>> Make art that pushes personal and societal boundaries
Make Art >>> Make your own art, its good for you and your local community
Black Label Movement is a Twin Cities based movement theater company dedicated to making wildly physical, naturally virtuosic, and intellectually and emotionally engaging art. Led by Carl Flink, this company seeks to push the mind, body, and heart to the edge of what is possible and beyond.
Contact Information:
Crystal Edwards, BLM Managing Director 321-720-0677
Website: www.blacklabelmovement.com Email: blacklabelmovement@gmail.com
Cowles Center Performance Information:
March 5-7, 2015 at 7:30 pm
Student Matinee, March 6 at 10:30 am ($5)
Tickets: $25 - 30
Available online @ The Cowles Center website or
by phone at 612-206-3600
