Tero Saarinen Company Opens Bard SummerScape 2011 with Dance Triple Bill on July 7

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Ninth Annual Bard SummerScape (July 7 – August 21) Presents Dance, Opera, Theater, Film, the Spiegeltent, and 22nd Season of Bard Music Festival, “Sibelius and His World”

The ninth annual Bard SummerScape festival opens on Thursday, July 7, at 8 pm with the first of four performances by Tero Saarinen Company, comprising a triple bill of the Finnish choreographer’s finest dances: Westward Ho! (1996), Wavelengths (2000), and HUNT (2002). As the Globe and Mail (Toronto) put it, “The evening is more than three wonderfully provocative dance pieces. ... The build, from one dance to the next in terms of mood and impact, is architectural perfection.” The performances will take place in the Frank Gehry-designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on Bard College’s stunning Hudson River campus. Three additional performances are on July 8 and 9, also at 8 pm, and on Sunday, July 10 at 3 pm. This season’s SummerScape Gala Benefit precedes the July 9 performance.

A significant dance performance has opened SummerScape each year since 2005; last season’s offering from the Trisha Brown Dance Company prompted the Star-Ledger to comment: “If any dance event is worth a quick run out of town, it’s this one.” SummerScape 2011 is keyed to the theme of this year’s Bard Music Festival, “Jean Sibelius and His World.” Like the great symphonist, Tero Saarinen Company is one of Finland’s leading cultural exports. The “outstanding contemporary dance troupe” (Globe and Mail) has performed in nearly 40 countries, and Saarinen’s daring and innovative choreography, whose influences range from Japanese butoh and martial arts to classical ballet and Western contemporary dance, has been incorporated into the repertoire of such prominent dance groups as Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT1), the Batsheva Dance Company, Lyon Opera Ballet, and the Finnish National Ballet.

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