Trey McIntyre Project at Edison Theatre Oct. 10 and 11

Trey McIntyre is one of today’s most innovative and sought-after choreographers, known for both challenging and expanding the limits of contemporary ballet. Next month McIntyre’s company, the Trey McIntyre Project, will make its St. Louis debut as part of the Edison Theatre OVATIONS Series.

Performances begin at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 10 and 11. Tickets are $32; $28 seniors and Washington University faculty and staff; and $20 for students and children. Tickets are available at the Edison Theatre Box Office and through all MetroTix outlets. Edison Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd.

For more information, call (314) 935-6543 or email Edison@wustl.edu.

Taking ballet’s movement vocabulary as a point of departure, McIntyre creates intricate yet powerful works — set to both classical and pop scores — filled with striking tableaus and romantic details. “I like the clarity and science of that language,” he recently explained to Dance Magazine. “There’s an incredible amount of detail in it. I tend to explore melodies and countermelodies. I write my own rhythmic and lyrical phrase within music.”

The St. Louis program will feature two new works and one iconic piece from McIntyre’s extensive repertory. The evening will open with Leatherwing Bat, a whimsical yet poignant work for six dancers that debuted last August at Jacob’s Pillow in New York. Set to Peter, Paul and Mary’s classic folk album Peter, Paul and Mommy (1969), the dance explores the awkwardness and loss-of-innocence that accompanies the journey from adolescence to adulthood.

“This collection of music was one of the soundtracks of my childhood,” McIntyre explains. “I recently revisited the album after not listening to it for several years and was struck, not with the familiar comfort I had expected, but a profound loneliness and sense of pre-mature adulthood that marked my own life. I realized that the music was comforting to me as a child not because it was childlike, but because it reflected my own unique experience.”

Also on the program is the duo Surrender, a quirky battle-of-the-sexes set to music by Grand Funk Railroad, Pyotr IlyichTchaikovsky and Regina Spektor, which also premiered last summer. Concluding the program will be The Reassuring Effects (of Form and Poetry) (2003), a playfully postmodern work for eight dancers set to Antonín Dvorák’s Serenade in E, Op 22.

Born in Wichita, KS, McIntyre trained as a dancer at the North Carolina School of the Arts and later with the Houston Ballet Academy. In 1989 he was named choreographic apprentice to the Houston Ballet — a position created specially for him by artistic director Ben Stevenson — and from 1995 to 2007 served as the company’s choreographic associate.

While in Houston McIntyre also began creating works for many of today’s leading dance companies, ranging from American Ballet Theatre, the New York City Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago to the Stuttgart Ballet and Ballet de Santiago. In 2004 he launched the Trey McIntyre Project as a summer touring company, bursting onto the national scene with a celebrated appearance at The Vail International Dance Festival. In 2008-09 the company will present its first national tour, visiting 30 cities across the United States.

In addition to his many commissions, McIntyre’s honors and awards include two choreographic fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography from the Choo San Goh & H. Robert Magee Foundation. In 2003, he was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch.”

EDISON THEATRE

Founded in 1973, the Edison Theatre OVATIONS Series serves both Washington University and the St. Louis community by providing the highest caliber national and international artists in music, dance and theater, performing new works as well as innovative interpretations of classical material not otherwise seen in St. Louis.

Edison Theatre programs are made possible with support from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; the Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis; and private contributors. The OVATIONS Season is supported by The Mid-America Arts Alliance with generous underwriting by the National Endowment for the Arts and foundations, corporations and individuals throughout Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.