Bebe Miller Company Returns with World Premiere

Show Is Culmination of Longterm Creative Residency at Wexner Center and OSU

Award-winning choreographer and Ohio State dance professor Bebe Miller and her dance company return to the Wexner Center to perform the world premiere of the multimedia dance work Necessary Beauty October 1–5, 2008. The result of a series of multiweek creative residencies at the Wexner Center over the last two years, Necessary Beauty aims to reveal the unexpected yet “necessary” artful moments of our lives. Miller and her company are teaming with many of the same collaborators who contributed to Bebe Miller’s Bessie –Award-winning Landing/Place, including Ohio State’s Advanced Computing Center for Arts and Design (ACCAD), this time augmented by Obie award-winning writer Ain Gordon who aids in shaping the text. The piece involves digital animation of images drawn from nature and everyday life, projected onto two large screens to complement the movement of the dancers. An electronica composer performs the score live.

Miller and her company will offer post-performance discussions each night.

Necessary Beauty will tour nationally after its premiere here.

 

CREATIVE SUPPORT, A CREATIVE CAMPUS
The Wexner Center has extended creative residency support to Bebe Miller on multiple occasions over the years, aiding in the development of new works for her company as well as special collaborations, such as a piece with visual artist Jay Bolotin and a videodance project created with video artist Isaac Julian. These creative development resources are complemented by further creative support provided by ACCAD and  the top-rated dance department at OSU to help bring these projects to fruition.

Charles Helm, director of performing arts at the Wexner Center, notes, “Necessary Beauty and our ongoing partnership with Bebe Miller to support her creative aims serve as a prime example of our joint efforts to address ‘creative campus’ initiatives that examine the potential and the impact of the arts on college and university campuses today. The commitment of creative support for artists to utilize the diverse rich resources found at major universities are one way we can join forces with our academic partners to fulfill the research mission of this leading university.”

During the final section of her creative residency for Necessary Beauty, Miller will be conducting a discussion session for students in the Department of Dance and in the media arts program at ACCAD, where she will offer insight into the evolution of Necessary Beauty as a multimedia work and the issues she faces in maintaining her work as a regionally based choreographer and touring artist in these times.
 

ABOUT BEBE MILLER COMPANY
Choreographer Bebe Miller has been a professor in Ohio State’s top-rated Department of Dance since 2000, and formed her New York-based Bebe Miller Company in 1985. After nearly two decades of operating as a traditional touring dance company, traveling extensively throughout the United States and abroad, BMC is now structured as a “virtual company,” with members living in various locations around the U.S. New work is developed over a period of years in long-term residencies that bring BMC dancers and project collaborators together for creative exploration, rehearsals, and community-based activities. Born in Brooklyn, Miller earned a master’s degree from Ohio State’s Department of Dance in 1975.

Miller and her company have performed at the Wexner Center five times previously, including during its second season (1990–’91); as a residency artist in 1993 for Nothing Can Only Happen Once; for the co-commissioned work Going to the Wall and The Hendrix Project in 1999; and to perform 2001’s and 2005’s Bessie Award-winning works Verge and Landing/Place (which was developed during multiple creative residencies at the Wexner Center and at ACCAD, and debuted here).

Learn more about Bebe Miller and her company online at bebemillercompany.org.

 

CALENDAR INFORMATION: Bebe Miller Company presents the world premiere of Necessary Beauty October 1–4 at 8 pm and October 5 at 7 pm in the Wexner Center’s intimate Black Box on Mershon Stage, 1871 N. High St. Bebe and her company will offer post-show discussions after each performance. Tickets are $18 for the general public, $15 for members, and $10 for students. Call 614 292-3535 or visit ticketmaster.com. Parking available at the Ohio Union Garage just south of the Wexner Center. More information: wexarts.org.

 

PRODUCTION SUPPORT
The creation of Necessary Beauty was supported through commissioning funds from the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University and Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois and by Jacob’s Pillow through its Creative Development Residency Program. Its production was made possible by the Doris Duke Fund for Dance of the National Dance Project, a program administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the MetLife Foundation; the Multi-Arts Production Fund, a program of Creative Capital Foundation supported by the Rockefeller Foundation; with support from the Ohio State University’s Arts and Humanities Innovation Grant Program, Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD), the Department of Dance, and the Greater Columbus Arts Council.

 

Necessary Beauty is a Creative Capital Project and a National Performance Network Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Myrna Loy Center/Helena Presents in partnership with Bates Dance Festival and the National Performance Network. NPN, and the NPN Creation Fund, is sponsored by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Ford Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Altria Group, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). Additional support is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

The National Performance Network is a group of cultural organizers and artists facilitating the practice and public experience of the performing arts in the United States. NPN serves artists, arts organizers, and a broad range of audiences and communities across the country through commissions, residencies, culture-centered community projects and other artistic activities. For more information: npnweb.org.

 

WEXNER CENTER EVENT AND SEASON SUPPORT

Major support for the Wexner Center’s 2008–09 performing arts season is generously provided by Huntington Bank and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

 

Necessary Beauty is funded in part by New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project (NDP), with generous support by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the MetLife Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation.

 

It is also made possible in part by a grant from the National Performance Network’s Performance Residency Program. Major contributors of the National Performance Network include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), Altria, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. For more information: www.npnweb.org.

 

The Wexner Center is a partner in the National Performance Network (NPN). NPN is a group of cultural organizers and artists facilitating the practice and public experience of the performing arts in the United States. NPN serves artists, arts organizers, and a broad range of audiences and communities across the country through commissions, residencies, culture-centered community projects and other artistic activities. For more information: npnweb.org.

 

Accommodations are provided by The Blackwell Inn.

 

All performing arts programs and events also receive support from the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation and Wexner Center members, as well as from the Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, Nationwide Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council.