Two warhorses from Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT)’s choreographic catalogue will highlight DEUX, the company’s closing production for its 59th season. In advance of RDT’s 60th anniversary season coming this fall, the company has presented works of landmark importance during the 2024-25 season.
The two choreographers represented in DEUX are among the most significant in RDT’s history: José Limón and Zvi Gotheiner. Limón was the first internationally known choreographer RDT invited to restage a work, shortly after the company formed in 1966. Different from some of Limón’s other great works that are girded in profound historical narratives, The Winged (original 1966) is an enormous suite comprising eight sections including solos, duets, trios and group sections. It’s a soaring exploration of ornithological wonders and some flying creatures of classical mythology, without focusing on a particular unifying theme. It is relatively more austere than some of his work but yet is marvelous and vivid. Set against the sound design and music by Lief Ellis, composed primarily of recorded birdsong and a handful of music tracks, the choreography is pristine for how it evokes birds gathering, their wings fluttering as they race rapidly back and forth across the stage, as well as in and out of formation.
Among the notable solos and duets are those representing Eros, the occasionally unruly and maverick winged god of love; story of Daedalus and Icarus; Pegasus in the modern majestic framing as the flying horse of the nine Muses, and the Sphinx who challenges the viewer with her riddle. When Limón set the work, his eponymous dance company at the time was highlighted by a fresh wave of younger dancers, many of whom were his students and had come from Juilliard. Four guest dancers (Joseph ‘jo’ Blake, Tara McArthur, Kara Komarnitsky and Bayley Brooks) will join the company (Caleb Daly, Daniel Do, Lindsey Faber, Jacob Lewis, Megan O’Brien, Alexander Pham, Ursula Perry and Caitlyn Richter).
Likewise, Gotheiner has an extensive history with RDT, stretching more than 30 years and including nine works that either the company has acquired or commissioned. One of the most memorable Gotheiner works in RDT’s repertoire is Chairs (1992), from which the company will perform excerpts. Chairs, at the time of its premiere, also carried a controversial edge.
One of the sections featured two male dancers in a phenomenal display of stamina that starts with the simple premise of sitting in a chair. As Francisco Gella, a former RDT dancer, explained in a 2015 interview with The Utah Review, “It was very controversial at the time because there was this small chair, very close boundaries, and two male dancers were in a duet atop this chair,” he recalls. He added that he still remembers watching audience members leave who were uncomfortable with the breach of intimate boundaries between two men. Indeed, much has changed since then. For this performance, RDT dancers Jacob Lewis and Alexander Pham, who are partners as well in life, will perform this duet as one of the excerpts.
Performances run daily April 24-26 at 7:30 p.m. in the Jeanné Wagner Theatre at the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts. For tickets and more information, see the RDT website.