Cal Performances presents Available Light (1983) featuring Lucinda Childs Dance Company, with music by John Adams: Light Over Water
Zellerbach Hall Auditorium
U.C. Berkeley, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA 94305 USA
8:00 PM, Saturday, February 4, 2017

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[8:04 PM announcements from Matías Tarnopolsky]

[8:09 PM lights down] [work ends 9:05 PM]

[9:10 PM Post-performance Talk with John Adams, Lucinda Childs, and Frank O. Gehry, moderated by Ara Guzelimian, Provost and Dean of The Juilliard School]
[talk ends about 9:50 PM]

Lucinda Childs Dance Company

• Katie Dorn
• Katherine Helen Fisher
• Sarah Hillmon
• Anne Lewis
• Sharon Milanese
• Benny Olk
• Patrick John O’Neill
• Matt Pardo
• Lonnie Poupard Jr.
• Caitlin Scranton
• Shakirah Stewart

• John Adams: composer;
• Lucinda Childs: choreography;
• Beverly Emmons: lighting design;
• Frank O. Gehry: architect, stage design;
• Mark Grey: sound design;
• Kasia Walicka Maimone: costume design;
• John Torres: lighting design.

Happily, this event was streamed live to YouTube, and at least for the moment, you can watch it on your own viewing device. At present, there's plenty of dead air at the start and following the main event, but maybe they'll replace the live stream video with an edited version somewhere down the line. All of the pics posted on this page are low-res screen grabs from that stream: I'm sure it looks even better on a big screen, but I was too lazy to try that.

I can summarize my experience tonight by saying that I'm really happy that I attended. I loved hearing the music (it was playing quite loud in the theater … at a warmly enveloping volume), and as I got used to the aesthetic of Lucinda Childs' choreography, I also really enjoyed watching the dancers. While the choreography for this dance was far more abstract and non-representational than Mark Morris' work, it's silly of me to have expected that the show would be anything like his. If there's one thing I've noticed over the years, it's that every choreographer seems to have a unique style or dance-language, and so must be appreciated on their own terms. I don't recall having seen Lucinda Childs' work in the past, but tonight's show certainly induces me to go see more!

The post-show talk was mildly interesting, but overall, it was kinda slow, and the interesting anecdotes were few and far between. I think the best thing I picked up from the talk was John Adams comments about re-using the ending of Light Over Water in his 1985 composition, Harmonielehre. Guess I should give that one a listen again too!

Program Notes

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2017 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2017 event list! ☸ On to the next event!