Repertory
Tern’s Landing
Music by Ravi Shankar, Kayhan Kalhor & traditional Indian ragas
17 minutes
"Tern's Landing" depicts the lives of women who have immigrated to the United States as
their arranged-marriage husbands pursue academic degrees. The piece is at once an
homage to the bravery of these immigrant women and a cry to make their voices heard.
The piece is inspired by Jhumpa Lahiri's book, Unaccustomed Earth.
Looking Through Windows
Music by Jane Morgan & Georgia Gibbs
4 minutes 45 seconds
In this witty and romantic duet, Mariah has an unusual dance partner: her laptop
computer. With 1950's pop tunes, table acrobatics and a compelling mix of sensual and
daring movements, the humorous satire raises questions about our relationships with
technology in our increasingly digital world.
Peregrine
Music by Edgar Meyer with Béla Fleck & Mike Mitchell
11 minutes 30 seconds
This buoyant coming-of-age dance follows a girl’s self-discovery in relationship first to a
brother, then to herself, and finally to a lover. The playful and light movement qualities
paint scenes of childhood forests, open fields and breathtaking ocean bluffs. The girl
overcomes her fears, molds her environment and makes her own decisions in order to
take her place as an independent woman in celebration and triumph.
Ethnography
Music by Steve Reich
8 minutes 30 seconds
Inspired by Mariah's global travels and work as an anthropologist, this septet examines
the myriad interactions that occur when two different cultures meet. While experiencing
assimilation and rejection, hostility and love, the characters seek to learn about each other
through each group's unique movement vocabulary. In the end, a final amalgamation of
movements exposes our common humanity.
Hedgehog’s Dilemma
Guest Choreography by Hans Rinderknecht
Music by Arthur Solari
7 minutes
German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer describes a human dilemma with a
metaphor: two hedgehogs wish to become close to one another, for comfort and
understanding; however the closer they become, the more vulnerable each is to hurt by
the other's spines. This intimate duet explores a budding romantic relationship and the
conflicting urges that draw us to one another and push us apart. Dynamic partnering
results as the two dancers struggle with these forces while never losing touch with each
other throughout the piece.
Stone to Silicon
Music by Edgar Meyer, Yo-Yo Ma & Mark O'Connor
5 minutes 30 seconds
This solo celebrates humanity’s spirit of invention throughout the ages. What inspired
people to build the Pyramids and cathedrals, skyscrapers and computers? What essence
of humanity urges people onward to invent, create, craft and engineer the world around
us? With imagery from the Aztecs to anvils to Apple, this piece displays agile strength as
the dancer carves a building out of thin air.
Galatea's Awakening
Music by Alan Hovhaness
6 minutes 30 seconds
This duet re-imagines Ovid's myth of Pygmalion. What happens after Pygmalion's
beautiful statue comes to life? Surely not everything went smoothly as Galatea became a
person with her own thoughts, feelings and desires separate from, and sometimes in
contradiction to, Pygmalion’s ideas. The dance includes acrobatic partnering and a tale of
discovering the real people beneath our own expectations of those we love.
Azimuth
Live music by mandolinist Hans Rinderknecht
7 minutes
This contemplative, airy and expansive solo started with Robert Frost's poem “Choose
Something Like a Star” and the question: what does it feel like to be a star in the sky?
Mariah's answer: lonely and burning. The piece thus becomes a quest for the vulnerable,
yet majestic, soloist to accept herself in relation to the immense galaxy around her.
Choreographically, the dance plays with how much a soloist can expand and contract the
three-dimensional stage space and explores the interplay between revealing and
concealing both emotion and gesture.
That Which Drums
Music by EarthTribe Rhythms
8 minutes
An in-depth exploration of rhythm, this piece for nine dancers offers an abstract depiction
of the daily sights and sounds of a rural Ghanaian village where Mariah lived in 2003.