choreography, direction and Libretto by christopher williams

Music by gregory spears

wolf-in-skins

Wolf-in-Skins is an evening-length “dance-opera” choreographed and directed by Christopher Williams and composed by Gregory Spears. Kings, foundlings, wolves, hounds, fay milkmaids and other mythical characters fill this dance opera that draws inspiration from a cycle of Welsh romance tales that preserve pre-Celtic and pre-Christian elements. It views marginalized or outmoded cultural relics, celebrating the “otherness” inherent in early Welsh literature, through a contemporary lens.

Driven by choreographed operatic sequences supported by supertitles, the work combines live music, dance, puppetry, and visual design to re-imagine lost mythology as a staged ritual. Singers performing in a quasi-archaic English represent the libretto’s human characters, whereas dancers embody its supernatural characters. A choir of shadow figures singing in Welsh represents the voices of the supernatural characters. The complete work strives to dovetail the traditional live performance genres of opera, dance, theater and puppetry into a visual, sonorous and spatial "polyphony" that forges new territory as its own performance hybrid, carrying forward the tradition of Wagnerian “Gesamtkunstwerk” and Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.

Additional Photos

Choreography: Christopher Williams Music: Gregory Spears Costumes: Andrew Jordan Performers: THE GWRAGEDD ANNWFN (wives of the deep): LLAETHWEN (a fay milkmaid).................................................................Breckyn Drescher/Nina Berman LLAETHENWEN (a milkmaid)..............................................Chelsea Retzloff/Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek MAIDDWEN (a milkmaid)...................................................................Christiana Axelsen/Owen McIntosh LLUDD CARN ERAINT (a bewitched bull of the deep).....................................Eric Wright & Drew Kaiser New Vintage Baroque: Baroque Violin............................................................................................Jeffrey Girton & Jeremy Rhizor Baroque Viola...................................................................................................................Daniel McCarthy Baroque Cello.......................................................................................................................Oliver Weston Baroque Double Bass.................................................................................................................Wen Yang Harp...................................................................................................................................Ashley Jackson Recorders..............................................................................................Lindsay McIntosh & Sian Ricketts Positive Organ/Keyboard.............................,,.............................................................................Elliot Figg Percussion............................................................................................................................Dylan Greene Conductor: Gregory Spears Produced by Philadelphia Dance Projects and American Opera Projects.

ADDITIONAL VIDEOS: Vimeo

CREATORS

Christopher Williams Choreographer, Director, Librettist — **Christopher Williams**
Choreographer, Director, Librettist

Gregory Spears Composer — **Gregory Spears**
Composer

Choreographer Christopher Williams, composer Gregory Spears, and costume designer Andrew Jordan offered an informal glimpse into the early process of creating their latest work for live music and dance at Watermill on June 16th. Inspired by ancient themes of the “mythic hero’s journey” found in the faerie legends, folklore, and earliest literature of the Insular Celtic cultures, the work’s libretto bears witness to the initiation rites of a central hero character grappling with queer identity via bouts with supernatural agency, otherworldly passage, and transformation. Driven by detailed choreographic, musical, visual, and poetic sequences, the work interweaves dance, music, and visual design to define a ritualistic arena in which lost mythology is embodied via contemporary performance. Presentations of dance etudes, musical themes, and costume designs from the work-in-progress were accompanied by discussions about the work’s research, concept, and design. A conversation with the audience followed the showing.

PRESS

“a feast of primal song and dance”

— Philadelphia Inquirer

“Operatic elements tell the story while dance explores the dreaminess of the mythology…it’s a visual feast.” —Merilyn Jackson, Philadelphia Inquirer

“Dance and opera certainly have been blended over the centuries, but not often with the sort of intensive interaction demanded by [choreographer] Williams and composer Gregory Spears, both seemingly fearless about striking out in new direction.” —David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer

Information

Duration

Commission Wolf-in-Skins is currently in development in American Opera Projects, supported in part by funding through the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and in partnership with Philadelphia Dance Projects, supported in part by The National Endowment for the Arts, the William Penn Foundation and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.

Premiere TBA

Roles

Development Artists Dancers: Caitlin Scranton, Joanna Kotze, Storme Sundberg, Steven Zarzecki, Jordan Morley, Edward Rice, Aaron McGloin, Raja Kelly, Samuel Wentz, Kira Blazek, Dylan Crossman, Jordan Isadore, Burr Johnson, Kennis Hawkins, Matthew Flatley. Singers: Anthony Roth Costanzo, Marcus DeLoach, Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, Nina Berman, Ryland Angel, Drew Santini, Owen McIntosh, Matt Boehler, Evan Hughes, Rebecca Ringle. Musicians: New Vintage Baroque ensemble, Lindsay McIntosh, Larry Lipnik, Kristi Shade, Sebastian Street Quartet (Daniel Lee, Dongmyung Ahn, Alexander Woods, Kyle Miller, Ezra Seltzer).

Development Partners Philadelphia Dance Projects. Additional development of Wolf-in-Skins has been supported in part by funds from the 92nd Street Y New Works in Dance Fund, the Greenwall Foundation, and the O’Donnell-Green Music & Dance Foundation and provided through residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, One Arm Red, Dance New Amsterdam, the Joyce SoHo as part of a Rockefeller Dance-Theater Planning Residency, and at Watermill - a laboratory for performance.

Instrumentation

Publisher

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