Tales of Hopper
alt="A promotional video for Tales of Hopper"
About
Tales of Hopper is the fruit of a collaboration between choreographer Cherylyn Lavagnino and composer Martin Bresnick inspired by the work of American painter Edward Hopper. This theater-dance work casts the dancers as figures plucked from selected Hopper paintings, illuminating human connections through gestural movement steeped in subtext, as Bresnick’s original composition for piano, violin, and cello brings emotional undercurrents to the surface. Transparent set pieces reference Hopper’s environments, contextualizing each of the eight vignettes as they unfold. Tales of Hopper marks a departure for Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, asking each of the dancers to step into the new roles of actor and collaborator in the company’s most character-driven work to date.
Press
“The program's most extraordinary dance was Tales of Hopper. Lavagnino and her dancers succeed with this ambitious project in every respect that matters: illuminating the Hopper paintings logically, and providing a solid, entertaining and enriching piece of dance/theater in the process.”
—Critical Dance, Jerry Hochman
“But the highlight of the presentation was excerpts from Tales of Hopper. Designed to be more of a traditional theater exploration, the dancers took on characters from select Hopper paintings, as Lavagnino imagined and contextualized a world where they all existed three-dimensionally…. and it was truly exciting to observe the moments of tension, passion, and everything in between. You could feel the humanity punctuating every percussive note of Martin Bresnick's score.”
—BBW, Christina Pandolfi
“That performance was revelatory for the choreographic ability and quality execution displayed. The only thing that kept Tales of Hopper, one of the pieces presented, from showing up on my ‘Tops of New York Dance’ that year (2020) was that there was no Tops of New York Dance that year.”
—Critical Dance, Jerry Hochman
Gallery
Photo Credit(s): Charles Roussel
