Choreographed by
Robby Barnett, Alison Chase, Jonathan Wolken, and Michael Tracy in collaboration with Adam Battelstein, Rebecca Jung, Kent Lindemer, Vernon Scott, John-Mario Sevilla, and Jude Woodcock

Music: Chamber Symphony, Opus 110a, by Dimitri Shostakovich, orchestral arrangement by Rudolf Barshai
Costume Design: Lawrence Casey
Costume Painting Executed by: Martin Izquierdo Studios
Costume Construction: Kitty Daly
Lighting: Stephen Strawbridge

About SWEET PURGATORY

Commissioned by the American Dance Festival for Pilobolus’s 20th anniversary, this classic dance is a response to the music of Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, the remarkable orchestration of String Quartet No. 8 in C minor.  The haunting and stunning choreography follows the score reflecting strength, suspension, tenderness, and persistence. Sweet Purgatory explores a hovering premonitory world, its descent into Hades, a determined climb back toward Purgatory, and finally, out of ominous surroundings to an eternal stretch toward hope.

Image by Grant Halverson