Photos: Courtesy of Kansas City Ballet, RVA News, and Jessica Lang Dance
1, 2, 3: Kansas City Ballet performing A Solo in Nine Parts. Photo: Steve Wilson
4: Richmond Baller performing A Solo in Nine Parts. Dancers: Lauren Fagone, Thomas Ragland
5: Jessica Lang Dance performing A Solo in Nine Parts. Dancers: Sarah Haarmann, Todd Burnsed. Photo: Karli Cadel, courtesy of Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
A Solo in Nine Parts
Choreography: Jessica Lang
Music: Antonio Vivaldi
Costume Design: Lisa Choules
Lighting Design: Kirk Bookman
Length: 10:00
Dancers: 9
A Solo in Nine Parts was originally commissioned by Kansas City Ballet and premiered on May 6, 2010 at the Lyric Theatre.
“An oddity in the dance field is that although female dancers are the proverbial dime a dozen, an inordinate amount of directors and leading choreographers are men. Enter Jessica Lang..while her works are firmly in the contemporary vein, Lang's movement vocabulary largely stems, transparently and unapologetically, from more traditional ballet forms. An arabesque often looks, well, just like an arabesque...it's refreshing to remember that sometimes (remember that arabesque?) a dance can just be a dance, that good taste, strong artistic genes, and spirited performers can be - if not surprising - enormously satisfying.”
- Janine Parker, The Boston Globe, August 11, 2013
“Set to a joyful Antonio Vivaldi score, the work opens with uplifted, lighthearted movements, melds into more somber, introspective patterns, and ends with joyous prancing and leaps.”
- Julinda Lewis, Richmond Times Dispatch, November 11, 2012
“...a delight to eye, ear, and heart.”
- Mike Dunham, adn.com, April 17, 2011
“Lang has established a reputation for concocting ingenious choreographic interactions between dancing bodies and the movements of striking set and costume pieces. With this new work she showed she is equally adept at engineering intricate interplay with just nine dancers on a bare stage.”
- Lisa Jo Sagolla, Kansas City Star, May 07, 2010
“The entire piece was fresh and current.”
- Rachel C. Murphy, Present Magazine, May 07, 2010
“A Solo in Nine Parts is ingeniously structured and intelligently worked-out.”
- Paul Horsley, The Independent, May, 2010
Performance History:
Kansas City Ballet:
May 6-9, 2010
Eugene Ballet:
February 4, 2011 inCorvallis, OR
February 5, 2011 in Salem, OR
February 12-13, 2011 in Eugene, OR
February 18, 2011 in Lincoln, NB
February 27, 2011 in Coeur D'Alene, ID
March 1, 2011 in Moses Lake, WA
March 3, 2011 in Nampa, ID
March 18, 2011 in Florence, OR
April 15-16, 2011 in Anchorage, AK
Richmond Ballet
November 1-11, 2012 in Richmond, VA
Jessica Lang Dance
August 7-11, 2013 in Becket, MA
August 16-17, 2013 in New York, NY
May 23, 2014 in Guatemala City, Guatemala
April 25-26, 2015 in Queens , NY
October 23, 2014 in New Brunswick, NJ
Booker T. Washington HSPVA
September 14, 2013 in Dallas, TX
November 14-21, 2013 in Dallas, TX
University of Oklahoma
April 25 - May 3, 2014 in Norman, OK
Cincinnati Ballet
April 29-30, 2016 in Cincinnati, OH
Point Park University
October 13-17, 2021 in Pittsburgh, PA
WGRUV Dance Company
April 14, 2022 in Guateng, South Africa
May 8, 2022 in Sasolburg, South Africa
May 20-22, 2022 in Pretoria, South Africa
June, 2022 in Cape Town, South Africa