‘Halfway to Dawn’ music and dance production highlights the life of Billy Strayhorn

Northrop announces its 2018-19 Dance Season featuring 10 remarkable dance companies, including David Rousseve/ Reality, the American Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Northrop is a center of discovery and transformation that connects the University of Minnesota and communities beyond by celebrating innovation in arts, performance and academics.

Written, choreographed and directed by David Roussève and performed by his diverse nine-member company REALITY, Halfway to Dawn is a vibrant multimedia dance/theater work based on the life of Billy Strayhorn, collaborator and arranger for the Duke Ellington Orchestra. While composing some of the most gorgeous American music of this century, Strayhorn was one of the few jazz artists to be openly homosexual in postwar Harlem. The production is the last of the Northrop stage performances of the season on April 13th, 2019. The Northrup Center is located at 84 Church Street, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Choreographer/writer/director/filmmaker David Rousseve has written, directed and choreographed 13 full evening works for David Rousseve/REALITY.

Founded in 1988, David Rousseve/REALITY creates expressionistic dance/theatre works that combine the accessibility, grit and passion of African American traditional and pop cultures with the challenging compositional structures of avant-garde dance and theatre to explore socially-charged, immensely relevant, and often spiritual themes.