Don’t miss the return of live dance performance to the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan on Wednesday, October 26, as the Tom Gold Dance Company makes its debut there in the world premiere of a work that simultaneously celebrates the JCC’s tradition of presenting innovative visual arts. Company founder and director Tom Gold was inspired by the exhibition Bless: Design for Good, currently on view in The Laurie M. Tisch Gallery in the JCC lobby, to expand B-shert, a recent piece he had set to selections from Gnossiennes for solo piano by Erik Satie.
A shorter version of B-Shert was first performed this past August, but the full piece will have its premiere at the JCC. Gold has taken the opportunity to incorporate themes from Bless, which is a collection of graphic works by designers and artists from The Shenkar Research Center in Israel. The exhibition is described as part inspiration and part call-to-action, a reminder that kindness, inclusion, peace, and unity should be a part of daily practices and individual action, not simply aspirations.
The evening also emphasizes the joy of once again experiencing live dance, with the first, complete performance of Gold’s Portraits for an in-person audience. The work, set to chamber music by Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu, premiered in February 2021 in a performance that, due to pandemic restrictions, was livestreamed from the Church of the Heavenly Rest on the Upper East Side. Portraits also takes its inspiration from an exhibition of visual arts, the works of painter David Hockney as seen in a 2020 retrospective at The Morgan Library & Museum.
The Tom Gold Dance Company’s debut continues the JCC’s return to an expanded fall calendar of in-person arts performances, author talk, films and more. The performance takes place at 7:30 pm. For tickets, visit bit.ly/3TEJq8e. For our full schedule, visit mmjccm.org/lambert.
