For a contemporary dance company, walking away from a major presenting opportunity is no small matter. Choreographer Doug Varone had been scheduled to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts but canceled the engagement after Donald Trump attached his name to the venue. Companies like Varone’s operate on precarious budgets, and performance fees help keep dancers employed and new work alive.
Varone’s decision to withdraw from the Kennedy Center engagement resonated across the dance field. In its wake, other programmed companies also withdrew from appearing, leaving noticeable gaps in the Kennedy Center’s dance offerings and contributing to the current period of programming disruption at the institution.
Varone now brings his company, Doug Varone and Dancers celebrating its 40th anniversary, to Hudson Hall in Hudson, NY, where audiences will see an informal presentation of a new work titled No Matter What the End, based on a song from Radiohead’s 2007, In Rainbows album. The performance takes place Saturday, April 18.
The piece, created for the company of eight dancers, four men and four women, runs roughly 40 minutes. It will be presented as a 90 minute “Stripped” event: no theatrical lighting, no costumes, and the audience seated close enough to experience the physical logic of the choreography.
Varone’s “Stripped” performances are designed to demystify the choreographic process. Without theatrical distance or technical embellishment, audiences encounter the dancers directly, seeing movement with unusual immediacy. Varone speaks with audiences during these events, opening a dialogue about how choreography is created.
Working with popular music brings its own choreographic challenge. Rather than illustrating lyrics, the movement develops alongside the music, allowing rhythm, texture, and phrasing to shape the work without becoming narrative illustration.
Hudson Hall provides a fitting setting for the “Stripped” approach. Under executive director Adam Weinert, the venue embraces programming that encourages proximity between artists and audiences. A stripped presentation aligns naturally with that aesthetic, bringing audiences into close proximity with the dancers.
The Hudson Hall performance also reflects the company’s ongoing ties to the region through residencies supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, including work in Marbletown and Stone Ridge and collaborations with organizations such as Vanaver Caravan, which have extended the company’s educational outreach.
From Hudson Hall, the company travels to George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where Varone has maintained a long association. There the dancers perform this new work. The world premiere takes place at The Joyce Theater, New York City, on May 28.
The George Mason University performance fills the gap left when the company withdrew from its scheduled engagement at the Kennedy Center. In an unusual gesture, the George Mason presentation will be offered free to the public as a way for the company to give back to the Washington, D.C.-area dance community. Interest was high: roughly 1,200 tickets were claimed almost immediately.
Varone, an 11-time Bessie Award recipient, has been presented on major stages including Lincoln Center, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Moscow’s Stanislavsky Theatre, Buenos Aires’ Teatro San Martín, and the Venice Biennale. The company is also committed to education and to performing in local communities.
Catherine Tharin is a choreographer, writer, curator, and educator. Her writing on dance has appeared in The Dance Enthusiast, Interlocutor, Side of Culture, and the Boston Globe. Tharin currently curates The Dance Series at the Stissing Center in Pine Plains, NY, and dance film at The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY. Throughout her career, she has championed both innovative and legacy choreography, supported the work of artists across the field, and brought critical attention to the art form. Her latest dance, In the Wake of Yes, was noted as "powerfully animated, positively fizzy, full of droll wit" (Fjord), “The piece blended dance, art, and language into a layered meditation on love and emotional vulnerability." (Eye on Dance).
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