Underway

Underway is a dance opera directed and choreographed by Heidi Duckler with music created by four composers – an opera for five voices by Leaha Maria Villarreal, an eclectic mix of woodwinds by William Roper, a prepared trumpet installation by Sarah Belle Reid and flute and electronics by Justin Scheid. Underway features HDD company dancers Himerria Wortham, Myles Lavallee, Anthea Young, Rafael Quintas, Lily Ontiveros, Keva Walker, and Santiago Villarreal. Lighting design by Grant Dunn, costume design by Snezana Petrovic and set design by Alex Ward and Tanya Orellana.

Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem “Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes,” which creates a space for Eurydice to be imagined as an independent being, Duckler’s unique choreographic style and Villarreal’s experimental choral music will take the audience on a transformative journey to the Underworld through Eurydice’s perspective. Persephone and Hermes, embodied by HDD dancers, will guide the audience into Hades, situated in the underbelly of LA’s historic 7th Street Bridge, where viewers will sit facing the train tracks. Heidi Duckler Dance is repurposing the 7th Street Bridge underpass into a multidisciplinary public art space open to the public as part of a larger project in the works, titled The Span @ 7th Street Bridge.

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The Underway VIP Ticket Experience will include front row seating for an optimal viewing experience of the dancers underneath the 7th Street Bridge, an urban boat ride around the site, and an exclusive reception of drinks and desserts catered by one of Los Angeles’s premier pastry chefs.

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This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, Fundamental, Inc., Linear City, New Music USA, The Aaron Copland, Inc., and the California Arts Council, a state agency. To follow the project as it unfolds, visit our project page: https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/underway/