Inner Passages
April 24, 2025 7:00 pm
Inner Passages Opens April 24-26,2025 at the Overture Center
Featuring Guest Star Blakeley White -McGuire
Former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company
Presenting Two Original Dance Works
Powered by Ethereal Rhythm, Exquisite Movement & Tech Forward Composition
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Robert Cleary’s & Lisa Thurrell’s
World Premiere Ballet “Renascence” A Love Letter to Nature
(The Final Two Movements)
A Collaboration with Madison Composer Michael Bell
And set to his Symphony, “Regeneration: A Pentalogy”
Madison, WI- March 31, 2025…Kanopy Dance will open Inner Passages, April 24-26, 2025, at the Overture Center for the Arts. The concert features internationally acclaimed guest star Blakeley White -McGuire (White -McGuire), a former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company and the final two (of five movements) of the world premiere ballet “Renascence” (A Love Letter to Nature), an artistic partnership between Kanopy Dance and Madison composer Michael Bell (Bell).
White- McGuire who was hailed by The New York Times dance critic Gia Kourlas for her “powerful technique, dramatic instinct and an appealing modern spunk”, will present two original choreographies: a world premiere solo, “at the speed of time/on the other side of America”, and an ensemble dance, “These Worlds in Us”, that explores our inner lives.
In her solo, “at the speed of time/the other side of America” (which she also performs), White-McGuire merges her passions for movement in architecture, digital memoirs, travel, nature & language in a video forward performance piece that is filtered through a lens of digital technology, Isadora mapping, that she utilized for its composition.
“In my solo “at the speed of time/ on the other side of America”, I am interacting with the screen and with the audience in real time. The video montage behind me is a composition of videos I have collected over 10 years of traveling. These are places that I wanted my audience to see I wanted them to see what I see through my lens.” (Blakeley White- McGuire)
“These Worlds in Us”, an ensemble dance originally created for film with White-McGuire’s colleagues at the Martha Graham Company, was ignited by Missy Mazzoli’s emotive and groundbreaking composition of the same title, “These Worlds in Us”.
“It was during a deep period of listening in my life when I found Missy Mazzoli’s music, both heartbreaking and uplifting, as an inspiration. The first time I heard the music, I also saw in my imagination, the dance ideas I wanted to express in movement. I wanted to communicate about the depth of inner lives of peoples and of the collective unconscious; that there are all these worlds in us.” (Blakeley White- McGuire)
In reimagining the “These Worlds in Us” for its world premiere on the stage, White- McGuire worked intensely with the Kanopy Dance Company as an artist in residence last summer and evolved her vision with rehearsals and reflection over the past nine months. “These Worlds in Us” is composed of three sections: two new solos fueled by Kanopy Dancers Miye Bishop and Stormy Gaylord, and a segment designed for the entire Company, that incorporates duets and quartets and large synchronized movements as well as two video montages.
Inner Passages will also unveil two final movements in Robert Cleary’s (Cleary) and Lisa Thurrell’s (Thurrell) world premiere ballet, “Renascence”, a rhythmic dance journey that celebrates the harmony of connecting with our natural world, choreographed to and inspired by Bell’s symphony, “Regeneration: A Pentalogy”. Cleary and Thurrell are Kanopy’s artistic directors.
This performance represents another phase of a multi-stage collaboration to produce a full-fledged ballet between symphonist Bell and Kanopy. Three movements in “Renascence” were debuted during last season’s Confluence: A Prelude, and subsequently were presented at the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s Concerts on the Square® last July.
And next spring on February 27, 2026, the entire ballet (all five movements of “Renascence”) will be performed by the Kanopy Dance Company as part of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s Masterworks series in a concert titled Regeneration at the Capitol Theatre in the Overture Center for the Arts.
Cleary’s and Thurrell’s choreography for “Renascence” evokes the Greek Goddess Gaia, the earth’s eternal guardian, who summons an ancient serpent and other elemental spirits— in the form of Kanopy’s Company of eight dancers –to awaken our consciousness and our transformative path to wisdom. Like floating sylphs, artfully draped in metallic pleated satins designed by NYC costume guru David Quinn, the dancers will glide through exquisitely crafted, ethereal dance moves mirroring the expressive notes of Bell’s symphony in five captivating movements: Presence, Awakening, Effervescence, Chaos and Embrace.
Inner Passages
April 24-26, 2025, at the Overture Center for the Arts Overture.org (608) 258-4141
4/24, Thursday,7PM; 4/25, Friday, 7:30 PM;4/26, Saturday, 3 & 7:30 PM
Tickets (reserved seating): $40; Groups: 4 or more $35; Seniors 62+: $30.
Ages 18 & under and Students: $20
