Fantasque, a NYC premiere, is an ebullient and magical pageant created by choreographer John Heginbotham and puppeteer Amy Trompetter. Giant puppets and human dancers join forces to create a fable of a battle of light and darkness, with a fantastical cast of characters featuring giant babies, blue angels, devils, rats, and a restaurant where the customers are tuxedo-wearing fish.
Performed to live music composed by Gioachino Rossini and Ottorino Respighi, Fantasque ruminates on morality and immorality as seen through a child’s eyes in a series of connected vignettes bound by an unconventional and tender merging of puppetry and dance.
MEET THE PUPPETS!
After both matinees, kids are invited to take an up-close look at some of the fantastical creations and learn how puppeteers bring them to life.
John Heginbotham, a former member of Mark Morris Dance Group, founded Dance Heginbotham in 2011. The company has been presented and commissioned by prestigious venues including Bard College, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Jacob’s Pillow, The Kennedy Center and The Joyce Theater, and has toured extensively in the U.S. and abroad. Heginbotham is the recipient of a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2014 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. danceheginbotham.org
Amy Trompetter creates giant puppet operas, outdoor pageants and hand puppet shows. Her critically-acclaimed production of The Barber of Seville exposed and transgressed scripted content and operatic form. Her Punch & Judy just persuaded Brazilians to host an all-women’s hand puppet festival next year. She collaborates in prisons, brings puppetry to street actions and neighborhood centers upstate, and is the founder of Redwing Blackbird Theater, a puppet workshop and performing space in Rosendale, NY. redwingblackbirdtheater.com
Fantasque was commissioned by and developed in residence at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where it received its world premiere at Bard SummerScape in July 2016. Fantasque was developed with the support of a 2016 CUNY Dance Initiative Residency at Brooklyn College.
NYU Skirball’s “Serious Fun” family matinee series is made possible in part with generous support from Con Edison for family educational and enrichment programming.
Skirball Moves programming is generously supported by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Harkness Foundation for Dance.
