We Can Get It All Together, Are You Gonna Go My Way, I Belong To You, Take Time, Fly Away, Believe in Me, Riding on the Wings of My Lord, It’s Enough, and Here to Love, the best of Lenny Kravitz accompanies the full company of COMPLEXIONS youthful and vibrant performers who themselves represent diversity at its finest, as they perform the word premiere of Love Rocks, a contemporary ballet set to works by this iconic GRAMMY Award winning singer and songwriter. The performance is, reveals choreographer and co-artistic director of COMPLEXIONS Dwight Rhoden, essentially a simple ode to love, to humanity, to diversity, an invitation for us all to come together.
Love Rocks by contemporary ballet company, COMPLEXIONS. This ode to diversity is an ensemble piece but Khayr Muhammad and Jillian Davis are ones to watch. At the JOYCE Theater through Sunday Feb. 2. Photo by Justin Chao.
To quote from Lenny Kravitz’s hit, We Can Get It All Together, the ballet – vital and pulsing with extraordinary energy – essentially says, “Deliver me from Loneliness.” The lush melodies and retro musical style – Kravitz’s signature mashup of rock, blues, soul, R&B, funk, jazz, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, pop, folk, and ballads – combine with the most modern, relevant ballet to create an unforgettable dance experience. The costumes dark and spiky by Christine Darch bring to mind an elegantly Gothic Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Love Rocks looks at our humanity and how vulnerable we are, soulful and joyful it is a celebration rendered with athleticism, virtuosity, and passion.
COMPLEXIONS’ dancers, Tatiana Melendez and Vincenzo DiPrimo deliver us from loneliness as Lenny Kravitz’s hit songs call for acceptance and understanding in a troubled word, Love Rocks, a contemporary dance performance set to the music of this rock icon. At the Joyce Theater through Feb 2, Sunday.
So how does rock god Lenny Kravitz himself a powerful voice speaking for love, unity and togetherness in today’s world feel about a dance performance set to his music? Desmond Richardson, COMPLEXIONS co-artistic director, says he is “happy” to see his creative process interpreted in another dimension, literally infused with movement. Richardson hopes that Love Rocks will encourage us all to realize it is not a homogeneous world, we need, he feels, to perceive that there is great beauty in respecting one another. Without question we are delivered through COMPLEXIONS extraordinary movement from “brokenness;” negativity is suspended and harmony reigns, we have come together.
Tim Stickney and the COMPLEXIONS company perform Love Rocks showing us the power of love through the music of Lenny Kravitz. Photo by Justin Chao.
Coming up next from COMPLEXIONS is Woke a powerful work that speaks to the state of the world today, in fact it’s captioned. “A Physical Reaction to the Daily News.” This complex, contemporary piece is set to a remix of music by Kendrick Lamar, Logic, Drake, Diplo, and more. Woke addresses everything from gun violence to inequality, social justice, to the #MeToo movement and LGBTQ rights.
The Woke spotlight, a 46 minute long ballet, does not turn away from capitalism and corporate greed either. It looks at all the different things that are happening in the world today, the dancers are accompanied by an eclectic soundscape remix of symphonic textures, electronic beats, soulful vocals, piano, rap and spoken word, Woke uses the pulse of our daily lives and the immediacy of action and reaction to examine our moral compass, exploring the energy and inspiration for activism, awareness, and the need for tolerance, inclusion, and equality.
Provoking us to examine our moral compass Woke by COMPLEXIONS, shows us the need for tolerance, inclusion and equality. At the Joyce Theater through February 2, Sunday.
