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With weather this chilly, you’re probably dreaming of the summer. Well Lincoln Center Festival wants to add to your warm-and-sunny reveries: The New York institution just revealed details on this year’s international lineup of exotic theater, dance, music and other events.
RECOMMENDED: Full guide to Lincoln Center Festival in NYC
In terms of theater, this year has a distinct Middle Eastern flavor. Shows hail from Syria (While I Was Waiting) and Israel (Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination and To the End of the Land). Mohammad Al Attar's While I Was Waiting tells the true, horrific story of a man stopped at a Damascus checkpoint who ended up comatose in the hospital. David Grossman’s acclaimed novel is the basis of To the End of the Land, the story of a grief-stricken mother in war-torn Israel. English experimental theater will be represented by Opening Skinner’s Box (pictured above) by the devised-theater troupe Improbable. Co-directed by Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson, the piece examines human nature as studied by trailblazing behaviorist B.F. Skinner.
Musically, the diverse offerings include a posthumous tribute to jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman; Chinese vocalist Gong Linna premieres a new work written for her by Lao Luo and the Bang on a Can collective; a 50th-anniversary landmark performance of composer Morton Subotnick’s milestone electronica album Silver Apples of the Moon (1967) and a lot more.
Dance fans will kick up their heels upon hearing that the Bolshoi Ballet returns with a 50th-anniversary performance of George Balanchine’s Jewels, a three-part dance inspired by, you guessed it, precious stones. Dmitri Shostakovich’s driving, colorful music is the sonic backdrop to the Bolshoi’s dance retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. For movement with a carnival-like feel, try French circus collective Compagnie XY’s Il N’est Pas Encore Minuit. In this collaboration with choreographer Loïc Touzé, 22 acrobats “reflect on the ways in which humanity deals with instability and imbalance.”
The Festival runs July 10-30 at various venues. For more details, visit Lincoln Center Festival’s official site.