Whim W’Him announces its eighth season, FIGURATE, featuring nine new contemporary dance creations by eight innovative global talents: Danielle Agami, Adam Barruch, Banning Boulding, Gabrielle Lamb, Bruno Roque, Ihsan Rutsem, Pascal Touzeau, and Olivier Wevers.
Olivier Wevers’ award-winning contemporary dance company, Whim W’Him, announces its 2017/18 season, FIGURATE, continuing its commitment to innovation, collaboration, and high caliber art. Seattle audiences will see nine new contemporary dance creations by eight world-class choreographers across three programs. The season kicks off with Whim W’Him’s Choreographic Shindig III at the Erickson Theater Off Broadway, September 8-16, 2017.
“Our daring, curious, and passionate audience continues to inspire me to bring a global contemporary dance perspective to our programming. I am proud to invite creative and audacious choreographers to Seattle and to solidify our position as a major incubator for contemporary dance innovation in the Pacific Northwest,” says Wevers. In its third year, this unique and popular annual dancer-curated program features emerging choreographers who are selected by Whim W’Him dancers out of nearly a hundred applications. This year’s choreographers are Adam Barruch, Artistic Director of Anatomiae Occultii, from New York City, Banning Boulding, founder and Artistic Director of New Dialect, from Nashville, and Bruno Roque, a former soloist with Les Ballets de Monte Carlo and Royal Ballet of Flanders from Portugal.
It’s often said that second efforts are never as good as firsts (sophomore albums, second novels), but year two of Choreographic Shindig blew year one out of the water. I’m already anticipating next year’s choices. -Rachel Gallaher, City Arts, September, 2016
January 19-27, 2018, Whim W’Him will return to the Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center for CONFIGURATE. Gabrielle Lamb, 2014 Princess Grace Award winner for Choreography from New York City will premiere new work. Ihsan Rutsem, winner of the Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest in 2012, is returning to set his second work on the company. Artistic Director, Olivier Wevers will present his next original creation inspired by famous love letters.
Whim W’Him’s season will conclude with TRANSFIGURATE at the Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center, June 8-16, 2018. This production will feature new works by Danielle Agami, former Batsheva dancer under the artistic directorship of Ohad Naharin, and Artistic Director of Ate9 dANCEcOMPANY, French-born Pascal Touzeau, a former dancer with Ballet Frankfurt under the artistic directorship of William Forsythe and former Artistic Director of Ballettmainz, along with a new creation from artistic director, Olivier Wevers.
Season subscriptions go on sale to the public June 2nd through Brown Paper Tickets, allowing patrons to secure seats for all three productions and gain access to a variety of insider events. Schedule and programming subject to change. For more information, please visit whimwhim.org
Whim W’Him dancers for the 2017/18 season are Liane Aung, Cameron Birts, Adrian Hoffman, Jim Kent, Mia Monteabaro, Tory Peil, and Karl Watson.
WHIM W’HIM 2017/18 FIGURATE SEASON
WHIM W’HIM CHOREOGRAPHIC SHINDIG III
September 8-16, 2017
Erickson Theater Off Broadway
1524 Harvard Avenue | Seattle 98122
Choreographers: Adam Barruch | Banning Boulding | Bruno Roque
CONFIGURATE
January 19-27, 2018
Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center
201 Mercer Street | Seattle 98109
Choreographers: Gabrielle Lamb | Ihsan Rustem | Olivier Wevers
TRANSFIGURATE
June 8-16, 2018
Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center
201 Mercer Street | Seattle 98109
Choreographers: Danielle Agami | Pascal Touzeau | Olivier Wevers
Whim W’Him dancers for the 2017/18 season are: Liane Aung, Cameron Birts, Jim Kent, Mia Monteabaro, Tory Peil, Justin Reiter, and Karl Watson.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Adam Barruch
Adam started his career as a young actor, performing professionally on Broadway and in film and television before receiving dance training at La Guardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts, followed by The Julliard School dance department. He has performed works of many renowned choreographers and worked with Sylvain Emard Danse in Montreal, as well as with The Margie Gillis Dance Foundation. His own creations have been presented at numerous prestigious US venues and in Latin America. Based in Brooklyn, Adam currently creates and performs work for his own company, Anatomiae Occultii. He has also choreographed two music videos for Tokyo-based musical act mishmash and was selected as a participant in the 2011 Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab. His short-film collaboration with filmmaker Nel Shelby, Folie a Deux was screened at the Dance on Camera Festival in Lincoln Center in 2012. He received a 2014 Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences and has been an artist-in-resident, most recently at the 92Y (2016-2017). Adam is currently working on a new physical theater production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeny Todd.
Banning Boulding
A Nashville native, Banning received her BFA in dance from The Julliard School in 2002 and spent the first 8 years of her career working internationally. During her tenure with Aszure Barton and Artists from 2003-2010, she was a soloist, master class teacher, and rehearsal assistant. In 2007, she joined Rumpus Room Dance, based in Portland, Oregon and Goteborg, Sweden, co-creating and performing multiple site-specific dance works, She and her Rumpus Room colleagues were nominated one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2010. That year, Banning also returned to Nashville and in 2012 founded New Dialect, a contemporary dance company which explores a wide variety of groundbreaking movement vocabularies. In 2014, New Dialect was named Nashville’s Best New Dance Company, and Banning herself received the Tennessee Dance Association’s Margaret Martin Award for outstanding contributions to furthering the public image and accessibility of dance in Tennessee. In 2015, she won Northwest Dance Project’s Pretty Creative choreographic competition and was selected as an e-choreographer for Springboard Danse Montreal. Banning was nominated in 2016 for the United States Artist Fellowship and received the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Fellowship for choreography.
Bruno Roque
Bruno was born in Lisbon. At 13 he was accepted by audition into the National Conservatory Portugal in dance. After graudating, he trained on scholarship at the prestigious Vaganova Ballet Academy in Saint Petersburg, Russia, until 1996, when he was offered a contract with National Ballet of Portugal, quickly becoming a soloist. In 2001 he joined the Royal Ballet of Flanders in Antwerp, and fro 2004-2016 was a first soloist with Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. During his dancing career, he performed works of celebrated choreographers and worked directly with many of them. Since 2007, when his first creation, Ai Que Vida, was made for a young choreographers evening at Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, his numerous pieces for the company have met with much success. Bruno has also been responsible since 2015 for the choreography, staging and artistic direction of a pedagogical project, supported by the Ballet de Monte Carlo, his numerous pieces for the company have met with much success. Bruno has also been responsible since 2015 for the choreography, staging and artistic direction of a pedagogical project, supported by the Ballets de Monte Carlo and the Monegasque Ministry of Culture, involving 100 plus children from Monaco primary schools in acting, singing and dancing, giving them the opportunity to experience the demands of creating and performing live in a professional setting.
Gabrielle Lamb
Gabrielle Lamb, winner of a 2014 Princess Grace Award for Choreography, is based in New York City, where she recently launched her own company, Pigeonwing Dance. She has been described by DANCE Magazine as “a dancer of stunning clarity who illuminates the smallest details– qualities she brings to the dances she makes.” Her dance works for stage and screen have also been presented by Hubbard Street 2, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, BalletX, Sacramento Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet Austin, Ballet Memphis, Jacob’s Pillow, Dance Theatre of Harlem, SALT Contemporary Dance, Dance on Camera at Lincoln Center, the American Dance Festival, and the ARTV and BRAVO networks on Canada. Ms. Lamb has won choreographic competitions at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Milwaukee Ballet, and Western Michigan University, as well as the Banff Centre’s Clifford E. Lee Award and a New York City Center Choreography Fellowship. A native of Savannah, GA, she trained at the Boston Ballet School and was a longtime soloist at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. In 2009, she was invited by Christopher Wheeldon to join his company Morphoses in New York City. Her repertoire as a performer has also included principal roles in works by George Balanchine, Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, Nacho Duato, Shen Wei, and Pontus Lidberg.
Ihsan Rustem
Born in London, Ihsan Rustem trained at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. He began his professional career at age 17, joining Matthew Bourne’s Adventures in Motion Pictures, followed by engagements with Ballet Theater Munich, Introdans in The Netherlands, Berne Ballet, and the Tanz Luzerner Theater, during which he originated roles in creations by such choreographers as Wayne McGregor, Hofesh Shechter, Alexander Ekman, Stijn Celis, Matthew Bourne, and Patrik Delcroix and worked with Mats Ek, Jiri Kylian, Paul Lightfoot/ Sol Leon, Hans van Manen, and William Forsythe, among others. In 2010 Sarah Slipper of Northwest Dance Project invited Ihsan to Portland, where he created ‘State of Matter,’ which won the 2012 Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest and the Audience Choice Award at the 25th International Competition for Choreographers in Hannover, Germany. In 2015, Ihsan became the first Resident Choreographer for NWDP and will continue until 2018. He was the 104 recipient of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s International Commissioning Project and selected as one of the choreographers for the 2015 season of Russian Culture Channel’s show ‘Bolshoi Ballet.’ To date, Ihsan has created works in the US, Turkey, Switzerland, Germany, the UK, Russia, Italy, and Belgium.
Danielle Agami
Danielle Agami was born in Israel in 1984, where she studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance High School and was a member of the Batsheva Dance Company. Between 2007 and 2009, she served as the Artistic Director of Batsheva Dancers Create, and functioned as the company’s rehearsal director from 2008-2010. After 8 years with Batsheva, she moved to New York to serve as the Senior Manager of Gaga U.S.A. In 2012 Danielle relocated to Seattle, where she founded Ate9—to fully realize her artistic voice as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Danielle was the grand prize winner of the 2013 & 2014 Annual Choreography Festival at the McCallum Theatre and Dance Magazine’s Top 25 to watch in 2015. In 2016, she was recognized with the Princess Grace Award for Choreography.
Pascal Touzeau
Trained in classical ballet at the Conservatoire in his home town of Bordeaux, France, Pascal began his performance career with l’Opera de Bordeaux, Ballet Bonn and Ballet Wiesbaden. From 1992 to 2001 he was a soloist with Ballet Frankfurt under the direction of William Forsythe. Before becoming artistic director at Balletmainz (2009-2014), he served as associate director and choreographer at Ballet Carmen Roche and as ballet director and choreographer for Ballet Madrid. In 2011, Pascal was named Chevalier de l’Orde des Arts et des Lettres of France.
Olivier Wevers
Dedicated to creating works of artistic innovation and collaboration, Brussels-born Olivier founded Whim W’Him in 2009. Before establishing the company, he was a principal dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Olivier has received numerous awards, including the Princess Grace Foundation Choreography Fellowship, the City of Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award, the grand prize an unprecedented two years in a row at the annual Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival in California, and an ArtistTrust/ Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship Award. He has been recognized among Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch, and participated in the National Choreographers Initiative, as well as the New York Choreographic Institute. Olivier has created works for companies and festivals around the world, including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Grand Rapids Ballet, Ballet of the National Theatre Brno in the Czech Republic, Northwest Dance Project, and BalletX.
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Whim W’Him is an award-winning Seattle-based contemporary dance company founded in 2009 by Olivier Wevers, former Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer and choreographer. The company presents all new works and has a mission to be a platform centered around choreography and dance for artists to explore their craft through innovation and collaboration. Since its formation in 2009, Whim W’Him has created 47 new contemporary dance works with 28 global artists. whimwhim.org