Neta Pulvermacher

The Neta Dance Company, founded by choreographer and Barnard faculty member Neta Pulvermacher, will present "6 Violins, 2 Cellos, 4 Stories", four works featuring a world premiere, a New York premiere and two revivals at The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street (Between 10th & 11th Avenues) from June 6 to 9 at 8pm.

Refusing to be labeled by type, Pulvermacher resists settling into any one genre. "6 Violins, 2 Cellos, 4 Stories", reflects what she refers to as, "relationships between the truly abstract and the truly narrative." The piece showcases her ability to work in different genre and to choreograph to a wide range of music both classical and contemporary.

The world premiere, "4 Stories", is set to an original score to be played by renowned Israeli violinist/composer Miri Ben Ari and her ensemble. "4 Stories" is a quartet for six dancers, in which each quartet uses a combination of dancers to explore different rhythms and relationships relating to the number "4". According to Pulvermacher, music and dance compete, converse and interact with each other as equal instruments in a living orchestral landscape. The sections are named after the metronome speed to which they are performed.

The New York premiere of "Vivaldiana", set to Antonio Vivaldi's "Concerto for Two Cellos", was originally commissioned by Ballet Wisconsin and Barnard College/Columbia University. The piece provides a vehicle for six women to express intricate musicality with clarity, lyricism, speed and ferocity. In concert with the structure of Vivaldi's music, Pulvermacher creates a neo-classical piece, which she refers to as "music visualization" whose shape and form breathes with the score. Pulvemacher considers "Vivaldini" the most beautiful piece that she has done in a long time.

Revised from its 1994 original which was set to an original score by Anthony Coleman, the acclaimed "Goodbye and Good Luck" was inspired by Pulvermacher's reflections on the "wandering Jewish soul". Born and raised in Israel, Pulvermacher wanted to capture her feelings about the rootlessness of Jews living outside of Israel. To do this she examined her Jewish/Yiddish heritage, exploring some of the "non-tangible tales buried under abandoned buildings and synagogues in Manhattan's Lower East Side" through humor, hope, despair, guilt, and longing.

The result of her exploration, a "klezmer grunge", was created in collaboration with composer Anthony Coleman and his band, Self-Haters. The work is performed by six dancers in a field of "bit-up" violins layered with personal and ancestral memories. The New York Times praised this piece calling it a, "Witty…pretty, nutty dance [that] sounded like every loving, haunted rant ever uttered by a Jewish grandmother."

"The Great Big Orange", created while Pulvermacher lived in Chicago, will be performed for the first time in New York. The New York premiere is a recreation of Pulvermacher's 1988 solo set to Robert Schumann's "Kinderszennen" (Scenes from Childhood). Using simple props of three white chairs and one orange, the work visits childhood's delight, impatience, naïve curiosity, disappointments, loneliness, and awkwardness. Pulvermacher and colleague, Maile Okamura, will perform the solo on alternate evenings.

Neta Dance Company, which was founded in 1986, has toured throughout the U.S., Israel, Poland and Canada. The company includes: Tracy Dickson, Maile Okamura, Jeremy Laverdure Theresa Ling, Jason Marchant, Brittany Reese, Tami Stronach, Nikki Ziechner and Neta Pulvermacher. The lighting design is by Jonathan Belcher.

Tickets for the performance are $20 for general admission. For reservations call 212-255-5793, Ext #11.