Join

A work inspired by José Limón’s vivid, poetic description of Doris Humphrey’s lost work Orestes. In Limón’s An Unfinished Memoir, he recalls his mentor’s process and staging with adoration and respect, claiming it “as one of her greatest works”. Unfortunately the work’s magnitude, with an orchestral score, The Eumenides by Darius Milhaud, made it impossible to produce so it never premiered.

Taking Limón’s prose as a source of inspiration, Aszure and award-winning composer Ambrose Akinmusire have reimagined the movement and music with demanding vocabulary, intricate partnering, and virtuosic use of space and musicality. In this breathtaking collaboration, Barton and Akinmusire elevate the Limón legacy and bridge the eras of groundbreaking craftsmanship.

"We’re cued by the title of choreographer Aszure Barton’s new work JOIN, to see and feel connection. Because JOIN is a salute to Doris Humphrey’s lost masterpiece and Humphrey's early explorations of gravity in modern dance, you too might be transfixed by Barton’s gushes into anti-gravity.  We see it in manic jump holds of fellow dancer’s torsos like mid-air squats, as if they are a dog in heat.  We see it in the seamless one-armed lift by dancers to let smaller dancers fly, or when one dancer emerges on high from the close-knit ensemble circle to touch imagined clouds.  But whether it is a solo dancer running circles round the circle, or in a long arm and stride breakaway, or resting in sleep while the ensemble circles above them, we quickly come to anticipate their return to the peace of a piece.” - Amy Munice, Picture This Post

Photos by Tobin Del Cuore, courtesy of Limón Dance Company