10
Oct/18

LUCY GUERIN INC: SPLIT

10
Oct/18
(photo by Gregory Lorenzutti)

Lucy Guerin’s Split makes its US premiere this week at BAC (photo by Gregory Lorenzutti)

Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jerome Robbins Theater
450 West 37th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
October 11-13, $25, 7:30
212-811-4111
bacnyc.org
www.lucyguerininc.com

Adelaide-born, Melbourne-based choreographer Lucy Guerin returns to the Baryshnikov Arts Center for the first time since 2009 — she was last in the city in 2012 with Untrained at BAM — with the US premiere of Split. The fifty-minute piece features two dancers, Melanie Lane and Lilian Steiner, the former clothed (in a costume designed by Harriet Oxley), the latter not. It’s an intimate, bold work on a square staging area that takes aim at the intense pressure we all feel in today’s furious, nonstop world as space and time close in. Split is set to a gently building electronic score by UK composer Scanner, aka Robin Rimbaud, who has written and performed original music for art installations, a musical comedy, a ballet, and more, collaborating with Bryan Ferry, Wayne MacGregor, Steve McQueen, Laurie Anderson, and others. Steiner, a Melbourne-based choreographer and dancer, received a 2017 Helpmann Award for Best Female Dancer in a Ballet, Dance, or Physical Theatre Production for Split; that same year, Guerin and Gideon Obarzanek won the Helpmann Award for Best Choreography in a Ballet, Dance, or Physical Theatre Production for Attraction. Split also garnered several 2018 Green Room Awards, including Best Ensemble (Duo or Trio), Choreography, and Concept and Realisation. The lighting designer is Paul Lim, with sound design by Robin Fox. Guerin, whose previous works include Conversation Piece, Weather, Structure and Sadness, and Tomorrow, recently told the Australian edition of Dance Information about Split, “The process started from various movement ideas, but it went everywhere, as many of my works do. So, there were times when we were working in big cellophane bags, and learning cartoon movement off YouTube. . . . It ended up being quite a dark piece with a real intensity about it. It’s really an abstract work, but it seems to bring out quite strong images for people, and I think that’s partly because of the clarity of the structure.” Split runs at BAC October 11-13, with tickets only $25 but going fast.