Choreographer Aszure Barton and award-winning composer Ambrose Akinmusire, two visionaries in their fields, created multidisciplinary, multidimensional A a | a B : B E N D, a Northrop Centennial Commission. For this evening-length work, the dancers, Akinmusire, and members of the audience share space for the performance—with a choice of seating onstage (Price 1) or on the orchestra level (Prices 2 & 3) of the theater. Dance and music engage in an in-depth dialogue in B E N D, crafting an intimate yet wildly provocative world where dancers and musicians coexist on stage to embrace human friction, tension, and explosive beauty.

Akinmusire is a composer and trumpeter who circles both the center and periphery of jazz. For Barton as a choreographer, jazz offers the musical equivalent of her dance-making process, amplifying the exploration of a choreographic language that simultaneously respects and dismantles classical and contemporary forms. Her dances are an amalgam of authentic movement, modern and postmodern aesthetics, and less-centralized dance styles such as voguing and breaking. The convergence of these two distinguished artists creates a cosmic refuge for the senses, oscillating between up close and personal to vastly distanced and massive, full of puzzling beauty and raw, physical emotion.

Copresented by Northrop and the Walker Art Center.