Whim W’Him presents IN-Spired

New Creations. Big Names. Familiar Faces.

Whim W’Him presents IN-Spired
New Creations. Big Names. Familiar Faces.

January 22-30, 2016
Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center
201 Mercer Street
Seattle, WA 98109

Performances:
January 22 at 8pm
January 23 at 8pm
January 29 at 8pm
January 30 at 8pm

Seattle, WA—Following the success of the company’s Inaugural Choreographic Shindig on Capitol Hill, Olivier Wevers’ award-winning contemporary dance company, Whim W’Him, returns to where it all began. Their winter program opens January 22-30, 2016 with IN-spired at the Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center. Featuring new works by Seattle choreographer Mark Haim, 2008 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship winner Dominic Walsh, and Whim W’Him artistic director, Olivier Wevers, this program will showcase three experienced, innovative, and nationally recognized dance makers.

Although a familiar face to the Seattle dance community, Mark Haim is a new addition to the Whim W’Him family. A nationally recognized choreographer, his work has recently been described as “profoundly beautiful and joyful and heartbreaking” in Dance Magazine. His role as a faculty member at both the University of Washington and at Velocity Dance Center makes him a key part of the Seattle Dance ecosystem. Inspired by the company’s versatile dancers, Haim’s new work for Whim W’Him will explore the blurred lines between what makes a dance “post-modern” and what makes it “contemporary ballet.” “I have known [Haim’s] work since moving to Seattle,” Whim W’Him artistic director, Olivier Wevers, comments, “and love his humor and cleverness. Every new piece of his surprises me and intrigues me in the most genuine way.”

Unlike Haim, Dominic Walsh, former principal dancer and choreographer with Houston Ballet, is a new face to Seattle. His work has been described by the Houston Chronicle as “dynamic, impressive, blissful and groundbreaking.” For this new piece, Walsh is excited to work with the Whim W’Him dancers to create a new movement vocabulary that explores both a “fullness of movement” and “specific small gestures.” “Dominic Walsh is someone else I have had my eyes on for a while,” says Wevers, “someone with a voice who pushes the boundaries of contemporary dance. I love his theatricality and his beautiful movement vocabulary.” Walsh will create his new work in collaboration with the Two Star Symphony, a string quartet based in Texas. This will be the fourth work in their ongoing collaboration.

Oliver Wevers’ new creation will be choreographed to Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major, Op 77. A departure from Wevers’ usual work, this piece will not have a story or narrative, but will instead “explore the bliss of dancing” and aim to “bring classical composition into the realm of contemporary dance.” Using all seven Whim W’Him dancers, Wevers will play with formations, rhythms, interactions and groupings to create “surprises and contrast.”

Whim W’Him dancers include: Kyle Johnson, Jim Kent, Mia Monteabaro, Tory
Peil, Thomas Phelan, Justin Reiter, and new addition Patrick Kilbane. IN-spired runs for four performances over two weekends, January 22-23 and January 29-30, 2016 at the Seattle Center’s Cornish Playhouse. Tickets start at $25 and may be purchased at BrownPaperTickets.com.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

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 2011 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, BalletX, Spectrum Dance Theater, Cornish Dance Theater, Prix de Lausanne, Against the Grain/Men in Dance, Seattle’s Bumbershoot, and White Bird’s 4×4 Ballet Project.

Mark Haim:
Born in New York City, Mark studied as a classical pianist at the Manhattan School of Music before beginning his formal dance studies with an honorary scholarship at The Juilliard School, where he received his BFA. He received his MFA in Dance from the ADF/Hollins University MFA program. He was Artistic Director of Mark Haim & Dancers from 1984-1987, and the Companhia de Danca de Lisboa from 1987-1990. From 2002-2008, he was Senior Artist in Residence at the University of Washington and most recently was Visiting Associate Professor of Dance at Reed College. Mark has created new works for many dance companies in the US, Europe, and Asia, among them the Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballet Frankfurt, the Jose Limon Dance Company, the Joffrey II Dancers, the Rotterdamse Dansgroep, the Silesian Dance Theater, the Companhia de Danca de Lisboa, CoDanceCo, the TRANS Dance Co., and Ballet Pacifica. He has restaged his works on companies such as The Joffrey Ballet, the Bat-Dor Dance Company of Israel, Djazzex, and the Juilliard Dance Ensemble. Since 2002, he has been guest choreographer at The Wooden Floor, an after-school organization that has promised hope and opportunity to nearly 400 low-income youth annually. He is a recipient of a 1987 NYFA Fellowship, a 1988 and 1996 NEA Fellowship and grants from the NPN Suitcase Fund, ArtsLink, Inc., the Harkness Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and the Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture. In 2000, he was awarded the Scripps/ADF Humphrey-Weidman-Limon Fellowship for Choreography. His full evening solo project, The Goldberg Variations, has been performed at the American Dance Festival, the Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, The John F. Kennedy Center, On The Boards, and other venues in the U.S, Europe, and Asia, most recently at the 2009 Bumbershoot Festival. He has been on the faculty of the American Dance Festival since 1993 and has also been on the faculties of NYU Tisch School of the Arts and Hollins University. In his 30th year as a choreographer, Mark Haim has choreographed over 100 dances.

Dominic Walsh:
In 2002, Dominic Walsh, Principal Dancer and Choreographer with Houston Ballet, founded his contemporary ballet company, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater. Today, the company’s roster includes dancers of the highest caliber and its repertoire features inventive works by Walsh and choreographers such as Mats Ek, Jiří Kylián, Mauro Bigonzetti, and Matthew Bourne.

Walsh was born in Elgin, Illinois in 1971 and started his training at an early age with Lisa Boehm, Warren Conover, and Larry Long in Chicago. He joined Houston Ballet in 1989, was promoted to Soloist in 1993, and Principal Dancer by 1996. He danced Houston Ballet’s entire contemporary repertoire, and Ben Stevenson created numerous roles for him including Marc Antony in Cleopatra. Walsh was the inspiration for the lead roles in Natalie Weir’s Steppenwolf and In a Whisper. In 1998, Walsh created Flames of Eros when Ben Stevenson invited him to choreograph on Houston Ballet. This work won the prestigious Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography. He created three more works for Houston Ballet and Houston Ballet Academy. In June 2004, after 17 years with Houston Ballet, Walsh left to pursue Dominic Walsh Dance Theater full time.

For Dominic Walsh Dance Theater he has choreographed works including The Miller’s Daughter (2003), Romeo & Juliet (2006), Le Spectre de la Rose (2006), I Napoletani (2007), The Sleeping Beauty (2007, The Trilogy: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (2008-2009), The Dying Swan (2009), Victor Frankenstein (2011), Clair de Lune (2011) and Sound of Cells (2013). Walsh continues to receive commissions to set and create works nationally and internationally including Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, Italy, Medea (2009) and The Sleeping Beauty (2011); American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Alchemy (2004); London Studio Centre, Sub-Luminus (2010); Asami Maki Ballet Tokyo, À Bientot (2006); New National Theatre, Tokyo, Orfeo ed Euridice (2007) and Wolfgang for Webb (2010). Walsh is also the Resident Choreographer for Sarasota Ballet of Florida, creating/staging Wolfgang for Webb (2008), The Trilogy (2009), and Time out of Line (2011).

TICKET INFORMATION:
Performances January 22-23 & 29-30 at 8 PM
Tickets available at BrownPaperTickets.com
$25 Advance | $30 Door | $15 Student Rush
Subject to availability, tickets are also available 90 minutes prior to each performance at the Cornish Theater.

SPECIAL EVENTS
POST PERFORMANCE DISCUSSION: After each performance, join the company and guest artists to discuss the works in the lobby of the Cornish Playhouse. Free for ticketholders.

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, that showcases innovative dance in collaboration with global artists. www.whimwhim.org

Publicity Contact
Catherine Bombico/ info@whimwhim.org / whimwhim.org/contact
Schedule and programming subject to change. For further information, please visit whimwhim.org.

WHIM W’HIM
PO Box #70285 ● Seattle, WA 98127 ● whimwhim.org