Creativity Talent Show! With a theme…

The American Dance Festival announced this week that dancer and choreographer Ohad Naharin will receive the 2009 Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival  Lifetime Achievement Award, a $50,000 prize. The award honors choreographers who have dedicated their lives and talent to creating modern dance.  

   Ohad Naharin

The first “Sammy” was  presented in 1981, the year I was an ADF press-office intern – Martha Graham won and one of her signature pieces, Lamentation, was danced at the celebration by Janet Eilber, now artistic director of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance. 

This year’s award will be presented to Naharin, artistic director of Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company, on June 25 at the Durham (N.C.) Performing Arts Center; a performance of his 2007 piece, Deca dance, will be performed afterward by the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. 

As a tribute to Narahin, ADF and the Sammies, here’s a Friday Creativity Talent Show all their own: 

ADF 2009: When modern marries ballet, creatively

In the house of dance, the way between ballet and modern was once barre-d. Modern dance, a reaction against the rigid traditions and formalism of ballet, had no use for grands jetes or entrechats – it was intended to be a new, freer form all its own. Dancers did ballet or modern – not both. 

As Charles Reinhart, head of the American Dance Festival, said in January, “When I started in dance, it was take for granted that a ballet dancer could not do a [Martha] Graham piece or a [Jose] Limon piece.”

But barriers fall and the inflexible purity and antipathy of the two styles have given way over the years to creative and unique blends of both.  “We’re talking about a world where the wars have kind of dissipated,” Reinhart said.

To explore what’s going on in the innovative demilitarized zone, the ADF 2009 is focusing on modern-dance choreographers who have infused works with ballet and vice versa. They include some of the contemporary dance world’s greatest talents: Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Laura Dean, Ohad Naharin, Mark Morris and Shen Wei.

The ADF, which will take place this year from June 11 to July 25 at its home base of Duke University in Durham, N.C., has announced a 2009 lineup of works featuring eight world premieres,  one U.S. premiere and four reconstructions of older pieces. Here’s the list:

World Premieres: Shen Wei’s Re- Part III, performed by Shen Wei Dance Arts; Emmanuel Gat’s Winter Voyage, performed by Emanuel Gat Dance; Jonathan Wolken’s Redline, performed by Pilobolus; a new work by Avshalom Pollack & Inbal Pinto, performed by Pilobolus; a new collaborative work by H. Art Chaos choreographer Sakiko Oshima and musician Alan Terricciano, performed by ADF dancers; a new work by Faye Driscoll, performed by ADF dancers; and Mark Dendy’s Would you please restate your answer in the form of a question? and Golden Belt.

U.S. premiere: Shen Wei’s Re- Part II, performed by Shen Wei Dance Arts

Reconstructions: Laura Dean’s Infinity, performed by ADF dancers; Laura Dean’s Night, performed by Aspen Santa Fe Ballet; Twyla Tharp’s Sue’s Leg, performed by Aspen Santa Fe Ballet; and Rosie Herrera’s Various Stages of Drowning: A Cabaret, performed by ADF dancers.

And here’s an extra something new for dance fans: daily online video coverage of the festival at www.americandancefestival.org.

Shen Wei Dance Arts, Re- Part 1