in residence at the Lobero Theatre, March 28-April 24, 2010

Celebrated for being provocative, witty, and engaging, Larry Keigwin comes to the Lobero to create a new work during an unique, month-long, on-stage residency. His eight-person, New York company combines physicality with theatricality, samples a variety of mediums and, ultimately, fuses art with entertainment. Keigwin’s recent commissions include the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, Martha Graham Dance Company, and Juilliard Dance Ensemble, among others.

Not only will Keigwin create a brand new work while in Santa Barbara, he will also recreate his recent work Bolero NYC to make it specific for Santa Barbara and the West Coast. The new work will evoke, in vignettes, the joys and spice of life unique to Santa Barbara and will integrate his dancers onstage with forty or more Santa Barbara community members, such as surfers, skateboarders, yogis, flamenco dancers, and other “fixtures” on the Santa Barbara scene. It promises to have a wide reach and broad appeal.

“SUMMERDANCE Santa Barbara helped launch Larry’s career as a choreographer,” noted Dianne Vapnek, SUMMERDANCE Executive Director and Artistic Director for DANCEworks. “He is talented, witty, hard-working and hip and has his finger on the pulse of contemporary America.  He’s an ideal recipient of a DANCEworks residency and will make the most of it.”

Larry said of his upcoming DANCEworks residency, “I am so looking forward to KEIGWIN + COMPANY’s DANCEworks residency. Our four weeks in Santa Barbara will provide us with the invaluable experience of spending an extended period of time devoted to the creation of new work and will allow us to strengthen relationships within the community. We will use the Lobero Theatre as an inspirational launching point for the new work, which will enable us to shake up the usual methods of choreographing and encourage new ways of developing a dance.”

And here’s what the critics are saying…

“Keigwin is always setting new challenges for himself and bringing them off through skill and imagination.” — The Village Voice

“Keigwin’s uninhibited embrace of the theatrical is itself a form of high art.” – New York Times

“Keigwin is impeccably musical… physically inventive… (and) his theatrical instincts are terrific.” – New York Times

Keigwin was one of four choreographers chosen to  set work on Julliard dance students.  The new piece, “Megalopolis,” was warmly greeted by Clauia La Rocco of the New York Times,  New Dances/Edition 2009. “Megalopolis” reveals (Keigwin’s) deeply American affinity for space and exuberant athleticism, marvelously complicated by a camp sensibility that suggests a fluid, unapologetic spectrum of sexuality.”

You can catch a glimpse of Larry’s recent work on his YouTube channel.