The Reclamation premiered February 18-22, 2009, opening the 2009 92Y-Harkness Dance Festival at the Ailey Citigroup Theater. Choreographed, directed and written by Hilary Easton, with original music by longtime collaborator Thomas Cabaniss, video by Anna Kiraly, lighting by Kathy Kaufman, and costumes by Madeleine Walach, The Reclamation examines the confluence between man and nature. This dance-theater work, for four dancers and two actors, looks at the ways in which we romanticize, fear, defile and distort the natural world, and the kinds of corrections that happen as a result of our interventions and abuses. Using the limitations of the stage-space as a microcosm of our small planet, the actors and dancers vie for livable territory and respond to the increasing lack thereof.

The Reclamation is a fully realized example of Ms. Easton's unique approach to narrative, with her signature buoyant, inventive movement world. With dancers Alexandra Albrecht, Michael Ingle, Joshua Palmer, and Emily Pope-Blackman, and actors Steven Rattazzi and Jean E.Taylor.

What strikes me immediately at the beginning of Easton’s newest work, The Reclamation, is the finely wrought movement. The phrases are thoroughly considered. They’re jagged and silky, elegant and chaotic, paradoxical. It takes years to develop the skill to generate movement sequences like this--so packed with detail and yet kept airborne by their own kinetic logic. It also takes the kind of mind which is truly captivated by the potential of movement. Hilary Easton has both the brain and the discipline.
David Parker-choreographer/artistic director: The Bang Group
READ THE AUDIENCE REVIEWS HERE

You can hear an interview with Ms. Easton about the piece here

The Reclamation received public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. The Reclamation benefited greatly from a residency at The Hermitage Artists' Retreat, in Sarasota, Florida and a residency at Bard College at Simon's Rock College. We are also very greatful for a generous grant from The Harkness Foundation for Dance and support from many individuals.