Peak Performances

Department of Theatre and Dance

Fall Dance 2019

December 5th - December 8th

This concert presents world premieres by innovative choreographers Maxine Steinman (junior class), Fredrick Earl Mosley (sophomore class), and Jessica DiMauro Marks (freshman class). Our senior class performs Martha Graham’s classic work Acts of Light.

Department of Theatre and Dance

ANON (YMOUS)

December 5th - December 8th

Naomi Iizuka’s heart-rending play, based on Homer, follows the struggles of a refugee in search of asylum.

Gandini Juggling and Alexander Whitley
American Premiere

Spring

December 12th - December 15th

The avant-garde virtuosos of Gandini Juggling create breathtaking productions that mesmerize audiences of all ages. Back by popular demand following the success of last year’s Smashed, the company collaborates with British choreographer Alexander Whitley in Spring. “Joyous, exhilarating and transporting” (Culture Whisper), this production interweaves five virtuoso jugglers with four contemporary dancers in a kaleidoscopic dreamscape including an immersive score by Gabriel Prokofiev. Visually arresting, colorful, and bursting with rhythm and pattern, Spring is a refreshing and entertaining production at the vanguard of contemporary circus.

Shanghai Quartet

February 8

Shanghai Quartet’s second engagement features notable classical compositions alongside a cutting-edge contemporary work. The world-class chamber ensemble performs a mysterious work by Caroline Shaw, a lively piece by Antonín Dvořák, and a majestic string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven.

The Shanghai Quartet is the quartet-in-residence at Montclair State University’s Cali School of Music.

PEAK Debut

Grand Band

February 14th & 15th

Grand Band is a unique musical ensemble that includes six pianos arranged in a circle and played by “the finest, busiest pianists active in New York’s contemporary-classical scene” (The New York Times). The sextet engulfs the audience in the sonic intensity of four landmark contemporary works: the iconic and massive Gay Guerilla by cult underground figure Julius Eastman; the pulsating Sensitive Spot by Australian sound artist Kate Moore; and my lips from speaking, a riff on Aretha Franklin’s Think by Pulitzer-winning composer Julia Wolfe. In a thrilling combination of sight and sound, Missy Mazzoli’s Three Fragile Systems is enhanced by the debut of an animated film by Joshua Frankel. In this film, commissioned by Peak Performances, Frankel builds a world of geometry, color, and looping patterns of human bodies created collaboratively with choreographer Faye Driscoll, heightening the experience of the music.