Dance for Twenty-Two – Canan a 4 – Group Adagio
Dance for Twenty-Two – Ricercar (2a6) – Finale
Choreography: José Limón
Music: J.S. Bach
Staging and Direction: Kurt Douglas
Performers: full cast
Costumes: Márion Talán
Program Note: This work is in memory of Doris Humphrey. It is based on movements from her dances, and contains variations, paraphrases, and motifs from: Gigue, Sarabande, Water Study, Dionysiaques, The Pleasures of Counterpoint, Circular Descent, Handel Variations, Air on a Ground Bass, Rudepoema, New Dance, With My Red Fires, Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, Ruins and Visions, and Invention.
José Limón (1908–1972) electrified the world with his dynamic, masculine dancing and dramatic choreography. One of the twentieth century’s most important and influential dance makers, he spent his entire career pioneering a new art form and fighting for the recognition and establishment of the American Modern Dance. Born in Culiacán, Mexico in 1908, he immigrated to California in 1915, and in 1928 Limón came to New York and saw his first dance program. Limón enrolled in the dance school of Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman and, from 1930–1940, performed in works created by his teachers. In 1946, with Doris Humphrey as artistic director, Limón formed his own company. Over the following 25 years, he established himself and his company as one of the major forces of twentieth-century dance. Limón was a key faculty member in the Juilliard School’s Dance Division beginning in 1953 and continued choreographing until his death in 1972. Limón choreographed a total of 74 works, including The Moor’s Pavane, Missa Brevis, There Is a Time, The Traitor, and Psalm.
A Choreographic Offering was first performed August 15, 1964, at the American Dance Festival by the José Limón Dance Company.
