The 92nd Street Y, New York’s 2024/25 Harkness Dance Center 90th anniversary season closes with the Limón Dance Company, celebrating its 79th anniversary. Company founder José Limón and 92NY’s modern dance history dates back to the 1930s; Limón performed here with the iconic Doris Humphrey, among others. The program includes generation-defining choreography by both Limón and Humphrey, and a striking world premiere by Aszure Barton. Performances are on May 21 & 22 at 7pm. Tickets start at $40 and are available at https://www.92ny.org/event/limon-dance-company.

“The dancers performed with a luscious spontaneity…this was alive” – The New York Times

Two Ecstatic Themes – Doris Humphrey
La Malinche – José Limón
The Moor’s Pavane – José Limón
Join – Aszure Barton (World Premiere)

The evening begins with Doris Humphrey’s Two Ecstatic Themes, a solo that encapsulates one of the earliest traceable moments of modern dance and the origins of fall and recovery – an inherent principle in contemporary dance as we know it today.

La Malinche was the José Limón Dance Company’s inaugural work. Examining two characters, Conquistador (Hernán Cortés) and El Indio that Limón had developed in previous choreographic explorations, La Malinche is an elemental masterpiece in his body of work that underscores his connection to his birthplace and reveals the promise of a budding choreographer. This work acts as a sketch of character development, musicality, and choreographic craft, laying the foundation for his most well-known work, The Moor’s Pavane, created just two years later.
Choreography: José Limón (1947)
Music: Norman Lloyd
First performed May 1947 at Jordan Hall, Boston by the José Limón Dance Company

The Moor’s Pavane, which premiered at 92NY in 1949, is an intimate work that begins with an introduction to the players, this time expanded to be a quartet. Limón’s movement vocabulary is more expressive and expansive, along with his understanding of how to manipulate space with complex partnering, and nuanced story telling. The Moor’s Pavane is one of Limón’s most celebrated works and has been performed by the greats from Julie Kent to Rudolf Nureyev.
Choreography: José Limón (1949)
Music: Henry Purcell (arranged by Simon Sadoff)
New York City premiere November 16, 1949 at the 92nd Street Y by the José Limón Dance Company. La Malincheand Doris Humphrey’s Invention were also on the program.

Join completes the curatorial arc, bringing the audience to the 21st century, and looking to the future of dance while harvesting the past for inspiration. World renowned choreographer Aszure Barton, and Grammy-nominated composer Ambrose Akinmusire, created a profound new work inspired by José Limón's vivid, poetic description of Doris Humphrey’s lost work Orestes. In Limón’s An Unfinished Memoir, he recalls his mentor’s process and staging with adoration and respect, claiming it “as one of her greatest works”. Unfortunately, the work’s magnitude, with an orchestral score – The Eumenides by Darius Milhaud – made it impossible to produce so it never premiered. 

Taking Limón's prose as a source of inspiration, Barton and Akinmusire have reimagined the movement and music with demanding vocabulary, intricate partnering, and virtuosic use of space and musicality. In this breathtaking collaboration, Barton and Akinmusire elevate the Limón legacy and bridge the eras of groundbreaking craftsmanship.
Choreography: Aszure Barton
Music: Ambrose Akinmusire
World Premiere performance

“92NY is widely considered one of the birthplaces of modern dance in New York and there is no better stage on which to curate a program illustrating this generational tapestry of dance,” comments Limón Dance Company artistic director Dante Puleio. “Many of the modern works known and studied around the world today got their start at 92NY from Ailey’s Revelations to Limón’s The Moor’s Pavane. To serve the stage steeped in such iconic history, this program honors that lineage with a vision towards the future. The evening bridges Humphrey, one of the founders of modern dance to the innovative and generation-defining Barton, and throughout the evening tells the story and uplifts the legacy of José Limón.”

 
(from )

• May 21 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
  and every day until May 22nd

  May 21, 2025 07:00 to May 21, 2025 09:00
• 92NY
  1395 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY

  Directions to event · Directions from event
• Contact Michelle Tabnick for more information
  6467654773 or lilli@michelletabnickpr.com
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