Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven

Music

Arvo Pärt
(Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, 1977)

Choreography

Ulysses Dove

Staging

Eva Säfström

Costume Design

Jorge Gallardo

Scenic Design

Jorge Gallardo

Original Lighting Design

Björn Nilsson

Lighting Design

Randall G. Chiarelli

Duration

24 minutes

Cast

6 dancers

Premiere

April 29, 1993
Royal Swedish Ballet

PNB Premiere

November 2, 2006; restaged August 19, 2009 (Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival)

The 2006 Pacific Northwest Ballet premiere of Ulysses Dove’s Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven was generously underwritten in part by Glenn Kawasaki and Winona & Robert Nilan.

Set for three couples in white unitards and subtitled Odes to Love and Loss, Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven was choreographed for the Royal Swedish Ballet in 1993 and received its U.S. premiere in 1996 at the For the Love of Dove benefit in New York. According to New York Times dance critic Jennifer Dunning, Dove “suggests a broken flow of relationships by placing his solos and duets in a chain of white spotlights.” Dove himself explained, “To me, Arvo Pärt’s music can send souls to heaven. I want to tell an experience in movement, a story without words, and create a poetic monument over people I loved.” The musical score, Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, is the same used by Susan Marshall for her aerial pas de deux, Kiss.

Notes by Doug Fullington.

Artist Biographies

Ulysses Dove

Ulysses Dove (1947-1996) born in Columbia, SC, began studying dance with Carolyn Tate while a pre-med student at Howard University. Upon graduation from Bennington College with a degree in dance, Dove moved to New York to dance professionally with Merce Cunningham, Alvin Ailey, and Anna Sokolow. Dove created works for companies including American Ballet Theatre, Ballet France de Nancy, Basel Ballet, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, New York City Ballet, Swedish National Ballet, and the Choreographic Research Group of the Paris Opera, where he spent three years as assistant director.