Yusha-Marie Sorzano: This World Anew 

Floor 3, Theater

Thursday, November 7 at 1 pm, 4 pm
Friday, November 8 at 4 pm, 7 pm
Saturday, November 9 at 1 pm*,  4 pm

*Audio description will be available for the performance on November 9 at 1 pm.

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Presented as part of Edges of Ailey, Yusha-Marie Sorzano presents dynamic and awe-inspiring dances exploring cycles, ritual, heritage, and lore. Shaped by the compositions of Chinese American composer Tan Dun and American multi-instrumentalist composer Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, these performances express the building of two separate worlds at their beginning, middle, and end. Through chaos and rapture, rebirth and futurism, Sorzano’s choreography touches the fantastical and draws matrilineal lines to honor the Black feminine. 

The self-liberating sovereign loyalties to give her hunter a vision
One to cease quell and quiet all derision
To bark out thunder, to roar out lightning
—Chief Adjuah

Program:
Solfège (2024)
This World Anew (2024)

Solfège
(2024)
Choreographer: Yusha-Marie Sorzano 
Music: Symphonic Poems of Three Notes by Tan Dun
Lighting: Pilar I

Cast courtesy of Repertory Dance Theatre: Caleb Daly, Trung “Daniel” Do, Lindsey Faber, Jacob Lewis, Megan O’Brien, Ursula Perry, Caitlyn Richter, Alexander Pham

Note: "The three solfege pitches, LA - SI - DO, have always reminded me of the ABCs - that is, the meaning of things starting, beginning, and of the origins of everything."   -Tan Dun

This World Anew
(2024)
Choreographer: Yusha-Marie Sorzano
Assistant Choreographer: Natalie McCall
Set and Costume Design: Stephanie Karr Smith
Lighting and Production Manager: Pilar I
Artistic Advisor: Toni Pierce-Sands

Cast: Sa’Nah Britt, Elinor Kleber Diggs, Aleigha Mayo

Originally from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Yusha-Marie Sorzano (pronounced Oosha) is a relentless performing artist, choreographer, educator, and mentor who has worked in concert dance, theater, television, and film. She has been a member of eight acclaimed dance companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Camille A. Brown & Dancers. She has received fellowships from AILEY, The New York Public Library, The Watermill Center, and YoungArts. Sorzano is currently the Co-Artistic Director of Zeitgeist Dance Theatre.

About RDT
Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT), founded in 1966 in Salt Lake City, Utah, is both a museum and contemporary gallery representing the scope and diversity of modern dance, past and present.  From the early pioneers of the art form to today’s cutting edge choreographers, RDT is known worldwide for its collection of dance treasures. The Company re-stages historical and contemporary classic works that animate our nation’s multiplicity of stories and commissions new works from a breadth of regional, national, and international choreographers. In addition to performing, RDT produces a variety of community-based activities and has a long standing commitment to arts-in-education that serves to train and ignite the creative voice in people of all ages.  

Solfège was commissioned by RDT and premiered in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2024. This World Anew was commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of Edges of Ailey.

Special thanks to TU Dance. To Founder and Artistic Director Toni Pierce-Sands and Artistic Associate Laurel Keen for their unyielding support.