Walker Performing Arts Season 2017–2018: Plurality, New Forms, and the Hope of Global Performance
The Walker Art Center announced its 2017-2018 Performing Arts season today. The program is rooted in the belief that global performance can diminish borders, build live human connections, and brew empathy and open minds. The diverse platforms and performances of 2017-2018 bring people together in real time to interact with inspiring creators from 12 countries across 4 continents. Walker Senior Curator and Director of Performing Arts, Philip Bither, notes, “With national leaders stoking fear and distrust of the rest of the world, we feel that offering performances by artists from around the globe, including Muslim-majority nations, is nothing short of essential.”
The season opens open with a work of fierce artistry by Morocco’s Bouchra Ouizguen, featuring more than 20 Moroccan and Minnesotan women in free performances at nontheatrical locations across the Twin Cities. This launches Spot On, a new site-specific series that also includes the UK’s Forced Entertainment with its six-hour Quizoola! at the Soap Factory and Zimbabwe’s Nora Chipaumire with a combat dance on masculinity at a Northeast Minneapolis boxing ring/gym. Other highlights include a new partnership with the Guthrie Theater featuring leading international theater visionaries making their Midwest debuts–Beirut’s Ali Chahrour in a contemporary exploration of Lebanese mourning rituals and one of the world’s great directors, Quebec’s Robert Lepage, offering his magical memory theater work, 887.
Following the success of the exhibition Merce Cunningham: Common Time, we explore an even greater comingling of the visual, media, and performing arts worlds with commissioned collaborations between jazz artist Jason Moran and video art provocateurs Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch as well as French visual artist Laure Prouvost working with a host of dance, media, and music collaborators. Both Moran and Prouvost are the subjects of two Walker exhibitions, and this fall we amplify our survey Adiós Utopia: Dreams and Deceptions in Cuban Art Since 1950 with new Cuban musical artistry (vocal powerhouse Dayme Arocena) and theater (Teatro El Público).
While master artists such as Bill Frisell, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, the Bad Plus, Vijay Iyer, and Tanya Tagaq return this season with special projects, even more present are an array of Midwest debuts by artists under age 40 (in addition to Chahrour, Prouvost, and Arocena): Brooklyn’s Rafiq Bhatia; Belgium’s Jan Martens; Scotland’s Anna Meredith; Niger’s Mdou Moctar; and New York City’s 600 Highwaymen. In addition to live performances, many season events also involve interactive, teaching, and social components.
Bither continues,”The Walker’s 2017-2018 season celebrates plurality, freedom of expression, open cultural borders, and new forms with a renewed faith in the future. I look forward to sharing the inspirations and transformations that the works of these creators hold for us all.” Continue reading
Media Resources
Saturday-Sunday, September 23-24
Spot On: Site-Specific Adventures
Bouchra Ouizguen: Corbeaux (Crows)
Free
Artist Website
Essay: Bouchra Ouizguen The Subversive Feminine
Video
Saturday, September 23
Mdou Moctar: Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai: (Rain the Color of Blue with a Little Red in It)
$22 ($17.60); $25 day of show
Artist Website
Noisey Review
Video
Friday, September 29
The Bad Plus: Bill Frisell ’85-’95
$45 ($36) main floor and $30 ($24) balcony
The Bad Plus Website
Bill Frisell Website
New York Times Review
Video
Thursday-Friday, October 12-13
Salva Sanchis and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker/Rosas: A Love Supreme
$25 ($20)
Rosas Website
The Guardian Review
Dance Magazine Interview
Video
Saturday, October 21
Rafiq Bhatia: Breaking English with Visual Art by Michael Cina and Hal Lovemelt
Ian Chang: Spiritual Leader
$20 ($16)
Saturday, November 11
Ali Chahrour: Leila’s Death
$45 ($36), $40 ($32), $35 ($28), $30 ($24), $20 ($16)
The Daily Star (Lebanon) Review
End Pain Review
Video
Friday, November 17
Dayme Arocena
$25 ($20)
Artist Website
Pitchfork Review
Okay Africa Interview
NPR Tiny Desk Concert
Saturday, November 25
Choreographers’ Evening Curated by Megan Mayer
$25 ($20)
Megan Mayer Website
City Pages Review
Friday-Saturday, December 1-2
The Staves and yMusic
$32 ($25.60)
The Staves Website
yMusic Website
Stereogum Review
Video
OUT THERE 2018 (January 4-27)
All performances are $25 ($20)
Thursday-Saturday, January 4-6
Teatro El Público: Antigonón, un Contingente Épico
Thursday-Saturday, January 11-13
Dana Michel: Mercurial George
Artist Website
Forget the Box Review
Video
Wednesday-Saturday, January 17-20
600 Highwaymen: The Fever
600 Highwaymen Website
New York Times Review
New Yorker Review
Thursday-Friday, January 25-26, 8 pm
Forced Entertainment: Real Magic
Forced Entertainment Website
The Guardian Interview
The Guardian Review
Video
Saturday, January 27
Spot On: Site-Specific Adventures
Forced Entertainment: Quizoola!
Wednesday, February 7
Anna Meredith
$25 ($20)
Artist Website
The Guardian Review
Video
Friday-Saturday, February 9-10
Laure Prouvost in Collaboration with Sam Belinfante and Pierre Droulers: They Are Waiting For You
$15 ($12)
Artist Website
Frieze Review
The Guardian Interview
Friday-Saturday, February 16-17
Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe: Meeting
$15 ($12)
Artist Website
The Australian Review
Video
Saturday, March 3
Sonic Universe Project
Douglas Ewart, Wadada Leo Smith, Roscoe Mitchell, Oliver Lake, Anthony Cox, and Hamid Drake
$30 ($24)
Douglas Ewart Website
Wadada Leo Smith Website
Oliver Lake Website
Friday-Saturday, March 9-10
Jan Martens: The Dog Days Are Over
$25 ($20)
Artist Website
New York Times Review
Video
Friday-Saturday, March 23-24, 8 pm
Sunday, March 25, 7 pm
Spot On: Site-Specific Adventures
Nora Chipaumire: Portrait of Myself as My Father
$25 ($20)
Wednesday-Friday, April 4-6, 8 pm
Saturday, April 7, 2 and 8 pm
Robert Lepage: 887
Wednesday and Saturday Matinee: $30 ($24) main floor; $20 ($16) balcony
Thursday, Friday, Saturday: $45 ($36) main floor; $35 ($28) balcony
Artist Website
New York Times Interview
New York Times Review
The Guardian Review
Video
Friday, April 20
Tanya Tagaq: Retribution
$25 ($20) and $20 ($16)
Artist Website
NPR Review
Video
Friday-Saturday, May 18-19
Jason Moran with Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch: Jazz Fest
$35 ($28)
Jason Moran Website
New York Times Review
Video
Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1
Vijay Iyer & Teju Cole: Blind Spot
$30 ($24)
Vijay Iyer Website
Teju Cole Website
The Guardian Review
Video