FOREVERMORE (2007) is a love story in two directions. The performers fall in and out of connection throughout the dance. The central theme is the pas de deux. The dance explores the legacy of the fairy-tale romance that has been integral to the ballet since its inception. Romantic Ballets brought ever-escalating themes of love and the “forevermore” concurrent with myth and metaphor of the period. The dance is set to Henry Cowell, an original score by Dan Siegler and Cheap Trick.

Ms. Tanowitz’s use of the set and lighting elements was also inspired. The stage space was framed by white linen panels, with the dancers stepping over the floor-wide one and the duet couple subsiding across it unexpectedly. A woman in point shoes could be seen moving slightly, framed in each of the narrow openings to the side of the stage’s back wall. And Ms. Tanowitz’s delicious sense of humor was evident in one processional of dancers stepping nonchalantly over stage lights at the sides. At one point, a dancer even holds a light up to focus on a soloist, to tease rather than for showy effect.
- The NY Times

8 dancers
45 min.

BE IN THE GRAY WITH ME (2009) examines the role of abstract dance within a classical story ballet. The dance is set to an electronic score by Dan Siegler and Russian composers Pavel Karmonav and Vladimir Martynov. Throughout the work ballet “preparations” take place in full view of the audience and the stage is an abstract proscenium using plastic to allow the dancers to be visible backstage and during crossovers. Be in the Gray with Me is an experiment – a deconstruction of the experience of watching classical dance.

When it comes to movement languages, Ms. Tanowitz is a fluent multilinguist, interweaving various styles and quoting from particular passages in a pleasingly unforced manner… There are many moments of dance drama, details you barely catch before they are gone…
- The New York Times



9 dancers
55 min

THE WANDERER FANTASY (2010), mirrors and comments on two versions of The Wanderer Fantasy, glimpsing aspects of narrative through the use of the emotionally charged scores: the original piano score, Fantasie in C major, Op. 15 (D. 760) by Franz Schubert and a recorded orchestral arrangement by Franz Liszt. While shifting between encoded gestures and virtuosic dancing, Tanowitz reconstructs classical and traditional movement through rigid physicality and abstract sensibility.

“She invokes a range of references — from 19th-century ballet to New York modern dance figures — while dissenting from central aspects of their style. Some dances say simultaneously yes and no to Marius Petipa, others hail and farewell to Merce Cunningham, and there’s often a strong suggestion of “This is not Mark Morris.”
- The New York Times

Part 1
20 minutes
18-20 dancers

Part 2
20 min
8 dancers