The Fisher Center and Live Arts Bard Present the World Premiere of Renowned Choreographer Tere O’Connor’s Long Run, a LAB Commission
 

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.— Live Arts Bard, the residency and commissioning program of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, presents Long Run, a major new work from Tere O’Connor, one of the foremost choreographers of our day. The piece will be performed in the Fisher Center’s LUMA Theater on Friday, October 13th and Saturday, October 14th at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, October 15th at 2 p.m. Tickets are $35: $10 for students and can be ordered online at fishercenter.bard.edu or by calling the box office at 845-758-7900.
 
Created with eight stellar dancers (Simon Courchel, Marc Crousillat, Eleanor Hullihan, Emma Judkins, Joey Loto, Silas Riener, Lee Serle, and Jin Ju Song-Begin), Long Run draws on the turbulent dynamics of our present to push the emotional content of O’Connor’s movement style to new physical extremes, allowing time-based elements like polyrhythms, velocity, and duration to overtake the performers as they struggle to bring their bodies into a state of calm. Historical structures, beloved landscapes and imagined places converge to inspire different possibilities for human interaction. Long Run features costumes by visual artist Strauss Bourque-Lafrance, lighting by Micheal O’Connor, and sound by O’Connor.
Of O’Connor’s work, the New York Times says: “At a time when many choreographers are distancing themselves from dance as the central focus of their work and instead placing themselves in a broader context of conceptually driven live art and multimedia projects, Mr. O’Connor’s work remains rigorously movement-focused. Rejecting set vocabularies and abstract trappings, he uses dance and the craft of making dances as a means of investigating the passage of time and the complex welter of thoughts and emotions we experience within it.”
 

About Tere O’Connor

Tere O’Connor has been making dances for 35 years, creating more than 40 works for his company, and touring extensively nationally and internationally. His choreography finds its logic outside the realm of “translation,” operating in a sub-linguistic area of expression. He views dance as a system with its own properties; an abstract documentary form that doesn’t search to depict. The lenses of western culture, spoken language or dance history, often used to “interpret” dance, are subsumed into layers of the work and decentralized. In addition to a great love of movement and a deep commitment to choreographic craft and design, more philosophical urges animate the work. He has created numerous commissioned works for other dance companies including the Lyon Opera Ballet, White Oak Dance Project, and a solo for Mikhail Baryshnikov entitled Indoor Man, among others. O’Connor received a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, is a 2009 United States Artist Rockefeller Fellow, and a 1999 Guggenheim Fellow. In 2014 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Arts International’s DNA Project, and Creative Capital. He has been honored with three New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards: one for Heaven Up North in 1988, another in 1999 for Sustained Achievement, and the third for Frozen Mommy (2005). His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, MAP Fund, National Dance Project and many others. A much sought after teacher, O’Connor has taught at universities and festivals worldwide. He is currently a Center For Advanced Studies Professor in Dance at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. He splits his time between New York and Illinois.
 
Support
 
Long Run is co-commissioned by Live Arts Bard at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College through a Choreographic Fellowship with lead support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and NYU Skirball. This presentation of Long Run is made possible by The New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Cultural Development Fund. Additional funding is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts’ Art Works Grant, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the research fund from University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. The development of Long Run was made possible in part by the National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron.
Live Arts Bard is made possible by the generous support of the members of the Live Arts Bard Creative Council and the Advisory Board of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, and by grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
About the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College
Named for the late Richard B. Fisher, former chair of Bard’s Board of Trustees, the Fisher Center has become an influential force in performing arts programming, earning critical acclaim for innovative productions of opera, orchestral, chamber, dance, and theater programs. The Center was designed by legendary architect Frank Gehry and distinguished acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, and has received international praise for its breathtaking architecture and superb sound.
 
Each summer the Fisher Center presents the Bard SummerScape festival, seven weeks of performing arts programs reflecting the life and times of the featured composer of the esteemed Bard Music Festival, now celebrating its 28th year. Fall and spring seasons include original productions, special one-night-only concerts, and touring artists from around the globe.
 
Live Arts Bard (LAB) is the interdisciplinary residency and commissioning program of the Fisher Center. LAB creates a community of professional artists and students who develop work side by side, inspiring one another to create and experiment. LAB provides commissioning and residency fees, studio and stage time, and production support to a wide range of professional artists and ensembles. At a time when developmental resources and commissioning funds for contemporary performing artists are increasingly scarce both nationally and internationally, LAB provides much needed support for artists who are creating groundbreaking and unconventional projects, and has supported over 50 artists and ensembles in its first five years.

The Fisher Center is also home to the Bard College Theater & Performance and Dance Programs, providing students access to exceptional theater facilities and opportunities to work with professional artists on publicly attended productions throughout the year. The Bard College Conservatory of Music and Bard College Music Program stage regular orchestral and chamber concerts. For more information go to fishercenter.bard.edu/
 
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This event was last updated on 10-24-2017

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