Four Quartets @ BAM / New York, NY
Photo by Maria Baranova
Join us for the critically acclaimed, Four Quartets, as it makes its NYC premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music!
Celebrated New York-based choreographer Pam Tanowitz taps into Eliot’s four-part poem, a mysterious meditation on past and present, time and space, movement and stillness, replete with images of dance. Her ten-strong ensemble moves lavishly through glorious solos and duets to a beguiling score by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho played live, while actor Kathleen Chalfant narrates from the stage, capturing the dynamic and kinetic language of Four Quartets.
The evocative stage design centers on paintings by major American artist Brice Marden, their exquisite colors and strokes each making connections to the geographical locations of the masterpiece’s four individual parts. Containing piercing and unforgettable literary passages, this unprecedented collaborative performance of the work is the first to be authorized by the TS Eliot Estate.
Published 75 years ago, Four Quartets is considered the crowning achievement of TS Eliot’s career as a poet. Today three visionaries respond to the cycle in a ravishing union of dance, music and art.
Choreography: Pam Tanowitz
Performers: Kara Chan, Jason Collins, Dylan Crossman, Christine Flores, Zachary Gonder, Lindsey Jones, Victor Lozano, Maile Okamura, Melissa Toogood with Kathleen Chalfant
Music by Kaija Saariaho; Performed by The Knights Ensemble
Sound Design by Jean-Baptiste Barriére
Text by T. S. Eliot
Images by Brice Marden
Scenic and Lighting Design by Clifton Taylor
Costume Design by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung
A Fisher Center at Bard Production
“The greatest creation of dance theater so far this century.”
Four Quartets is co-commissioned by the Fisher Center at Bard, where it received its world premiere in Bard SummerScape 2018, the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, Barbican, London, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
GAGOSIAN is the lead corporate sponsor of Four Quartets. Major support provided by Rebecca Gold. Additional commissioning funds were provided by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, the T. S. Eliot Foundation, King’s Fountain, Virginia and Timothy Millhiser, and Cultural Services of the French Embassy. Creation of the music was supported by the Thendara Foundation and New Music USA.