Attila Csiki in Transparent Things. Photo: Rose Eichenbaum.

In Paris, still reeling from the recent tragedy, a new exhibit has opened that celebrates the better aspects of the human spirit. An excerpt of Lubovitch's acclaimed dance "Transparent Things" is part of the exhibition, called "Picasso Mania," now on view at the Grand Palais through February 29, 2016. Click here for the exhibition's website.

The exhibition studies the impact of Picasso’s work on contemporary art, including theater and dance. Diana Picasso, the granddaughter of the artist, is co-curating the exhibition together with the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Musée Picasso. She requested inclusion of "Transparent Things" (created in 2012) because it was an important work inspired by Picasso’s painting "Family of Saltimbanques" (1905).

In the exhibition catalogue, Lubovitch wrote, in part, as follows:

"In 'Family of Saltimbanques,' Picasso has depicted the lives of itinerant street performers with the barest essentials of line, color, and design. At this moment of contemplation the pensive look on their faces and physical attitude speak to the challenge of the life they have chosen. This is a picture of the life they lead between acts. The painting tells of the fragility and impermanence of the artists’ lives – a life so fragile that it is nearly transparent. That is why I have called my dance 'Transparent Things.' It is a movement poem without irony, just as Picasso's painting is a design poem without irony. Picasso choreographed his image on a flat plane with four sides using only two dimensions that miraculously reveal a world of unfathomable depth and humanity. I have painted my tribute to his image with dancers’ bodies which, through the use of time, merely adds a third dimension."

To read more about the dance, click here.

Marimba, as performed by the Oldenburg Ballet.

Last Saturday, the Oldenburg Ballet in Germany staged its first performance of Lubovitch's "Marimba" (created in 1976). The dance, set to a score by Steve Reich, was the first dance to make use of "Minimalist" music. Beginning with "Marimba," Lubovitch went on to create a series of ground-breaking dances responding to the music of Reich and Philip Glass.

The dance will be performed from now through June 2016. The performance dates during the next two months are: Nov 22 & 28; Dec 13 & 28; and Jan 5, 9 & 30.

For additional performance dates, or for more information about the Oldenburg Ballet, click here for the company's website.

The opening section of Concerto Six Twenty-Two, as performed at the Royal Opera House (UK) by Northern Ballet. Photo: Emma Kaulhar.

Over the past 47 years, Lar Lubovitch has created more than 100 dances for the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, but, of all those, one of the company’s most renowned works is surely "Concerto Six Twenty-Two" (which premiered in 1986). This fall, the Lubovitch company taught the first movement to the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, TX. The school gave its first performance last week. Many of New York's finest dancers, including several members of the Lubovitch company, first began their training at Booker T. Washington. We are very happy to be able to give back.

When "Concerto" was performed two years ago at the Royal Opera House in London by Northern Ballet, the writer for "Seen and Heard International" called the work “simply gorgeous” and went on to say:

“Although nearly thirty years old, 'Concerto Six Twenty-Two' is still as fresh and striking as on its very first performance. Lubovitch’s choreography is imaginative and works in perfect harmony with Mozart’s music, becoming an integral part of it…'Concerto Six Twenty-Two' is exactly as the music is: joyful, harmonious, subtle and, at times, sublime.”

Mucuy Bolles & Barton Cowperthwaite of the Lubovitch company in The Black Rose. Photo: Yi-Chun Wu.

The Lubovitch company opened the 2015 edition of the Chicago Dancing Festival with a performance of the company's newest hit, "The Black Rose." The dance premiered last fall at the Joyce Theater.

Audiences and critics alike were wowed by the powerful work. In the words of The Chicago Reader magazine:

"Lar Lubovitch Dance Company’s 'The Black Rose,' a darkly over-the-top, not-for-kids two-act story ballet, was the blockbuster closer. Dramatically costumed and choreographed and beautifully danced by leads Mucuy Bolles, Reid Bartelme, and Barton Cowperthwaite, 'The Black Rose' is a macabre take on Sleeping Beauty complete with rape and cannibalism, powered by a wonderfully weird collage of a score—by Chicago native Scott Marshall—that draws on Disney and Tchaikovsky and includes the 1940s standard 'You Stepped Out of a Dream.' I'd see it again in a second."

For more articles about the dance, click here.