Patricia Beaman: "The Jewel Thief" - Center for the Arts

Patricia Beaman: The Jewel Thief

Friday, December 6, 2024 at 7:00pm
CFA Theater

$8 general public; $6 senior citizens, Wesleyan students/faculty/staff/alumni, non-Wesleyan students, youth under 18.

Saturday, December 7, 2024 at 7:00pm
CFA Theater

$8 general public; $6 senior citizens, Wesleyan students/faculty/staff/alumni, non-Wesleyan students, youth under 18/

Choreographed by Patricia Beaman, University Professor of Dance, and composed by Neely Bruce, John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, The Jewel Thief is an exciting collaboration of Neo-Baroque dance-drama based on Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller To Catch a Thief (1955).

The Jewel Thief is studded with heiresses, thugs, and other underworld outlaws that make up this lavish spectacle. It weaves the past with the present: drawing inspiration from Madame Sévigné’s reminiscences of the fêtes of King Louis XIV’s court, the 1920s Modernist costume parties of the Bauhaus, and Truman Capote’s infamous Black and White Ball of 1966.

Bruce will conduct the live performance of his evocative score, which interlaces Baroque and Modern motifs. The ensemble will include Piano Instructor Carolyn Halsted, Charles Yassky on clarinet, Alex Waterman on cello, Cynthia Knotts on violin, and Nola Campbell on viola.

The world premiere performances of The Jewel Thief will be preceded by the world premiere of ROWDIES IN LOVE.

A longtime member of the New York Baroque Dance Company, Patricia Beaman has toured the United States, Latin America, and Europe performing in numerous opera-ballets and as a guest artist with various early music ensembles. "Goddess/Siren/Monster," her Neo-Baroque triptych of the passacailles (court dances) of Venus, Armide, and Scylla, was performed at Wesleyan and toured to New York, Toronto, and Avignon, France. Her other Neo-Baroque works include "The Narcoleptic Countess," "Medea," and "The Seven Deadly Sins." Beaman has also performed, choreographed, and taught contemporary dance in the United States and Europe. She received a Mellon grant to reconstruct Yvonne Rainer’s "Trio A" and "Chair/Pillow," which inspired her research in juxtaposing formulaic similarities between 18th-century French theatrical dances and analytic Postmodern dance of the 1960s. Beaman is the author of "World Dance Cultures: From Ritual to Spectacle" (Routledge Press, 2017, 2023).