skybetter and associates Close World Premiere of FOR WANT OF SLEEP

Tracing the development of artistic director Sydney Skybetter's formalism, Brooklyn-based skybetter and associates perform Near Abroad (2008), The Laws of Falling Bodies (2009), Temporary Matters (2011), Little Boy (2012) and the World Premiere of For Want of Sleep, featuring a commissioned score by composer Sxip Shirey.

Near Abroad refers to the antithetic impulse to contain yet remain separate from another, exploring the physicality of partnership and loss. With its assiduous sparseness, the piece suggests that the most intimate bonds are formed not out of what is shared, but what is mutually had and then lost. The Laws of Falling Bodies reflects on photographs of jumpers captured during the chaos of 9/11. Simultaneously beautiful and disturbing, these images compel a work conceived to render gorgeous movement and abject horror simultaneously, with sequences of arrested falling punctuated by moments of impact. Temporary Matters is a meditation on parenthood and the passage of youth, employing iterative mathematics in an effort to contend with underlying themes of loss of innocence and life. The resulting work is at once haphazard and serendipitous, using the temporal nature of dance to address the chaotic nature of birth. A dense, sweeping work, Little Boy references literary source material (ranging from Borges to Murakami) and the nascent movement of vocabulary of Skybetter's infant son to explore themes of lineageand recurrence. For Want of Sleep (World Premiere) takes its title from a poem by Philip Larkin, and uses variations on the formal structure of mirroring to examine the rhythms of insomnia and partnership.

skybetter and associates has partnered with nel shelby productions to produce an innovative multi-cameria live stream of the performance on April 15. "When we live-streamed our sold-out season at Joyce SoHo in 2009, exponentially more people saw our work on the Internet than in the theater. Even given our extended run this year, we project that Internet audiences will outnumber tickets sold by as many as 5 to 1," saidSydney Skybetter.

Every performance will be followed by a talkback with various artists, scholars, consultants and managers, including Eduardo Vilaro, artistic director of Ballet Hispanico (4/5); David Parker, artistic director of Bang Group (4/7); Bill Bragin of Lincoln Center and composer Sxip Shirey (4/14); Tim Cynova, deputy director of Fractured Atlas (4/20); and Jennifer Edwards of Edwards & Skybetter | Change Agency (4/22).