Back by popular demand, Los Angeles-based dance company Diavolo: Architecture in Motion makes a return visit to the Moss Arts Center with a performance of its latest work, “L'Espace du Temps,” at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 6.

Presented by the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech, the performance will be held in the Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre, located within the Moss Arts Center’s Street and Davis Performance Hall at 190 Alumni Mall. 

Diavolo uses dance to explore the relationship between the human body and its architectural environment, taking movement, athletics, and daring to the extreme. Jacques Heim, the troupe’s artistic director, steers Diavolo’s diverse team of dancers, designers, choreographers, and engineers to create works that reveal how people are affected emotionally, physically, and socially by the spaces they live in.

The company’s new work, “L'Espace du Temps,” is a meditation on the space of time, showcasing vibrant music, dynamic movement, and compelling sculptural art. The performance was envisioned by Heim and the Los Angeles Philharmonic as a trilogy of work – from creation and evolution to an unknown destination.

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 “Foreign Bodies” features music by Esa-Pekka Salonen and begins the trilogy with a cube representing geometric form. The piece is an exploration of the intellectual and spiritual study of creation, with a myriad of individuals discovering a collective transformative identity within structural mayhem.

The second piece, “Fearful Symmetries,” is set to music by John Adams. It also begins with a cube, which has multiplied in its number of components, allowing many shifting symmetrical landscapes to illuminate the relationship between the universal language of mathematics and the human force that manipulates it.

With music by Philip Glass, the final installment in “L’Espace du Temps” is “Fluid Infinities.” The piece is set on an abstract dome structure sitting on a reflection of itself. The performers explore metaphors of infinite space, continuous movement, and the voyage into the unknown future. As the trilogy concludes, “Fluid Infinities” investigates the persistence of life through struggle and the promise of life to change.

Earlier in the week, Heim, along with Daniel Wheeler, Diavolo’s scene designer, will deliver the keynote talk for “ICAT Day,” an event showcasing work from the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, at 10 a.m. on May 2, in the Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre. They will discuss their ongoing collaboration with Virginia Tech faculty and graduate students, sponsored by the Center for the Arts in partnership with the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, to develop their next work, “Luminoir.”

During their visit, members of Diavolo will also lead numerous workshops for students in public and private schools throughout southwest Virginia, as well as for Virginia Tech students.

Tickets

Tickets for the performance are $25-55 for general public and $10 for students and youth 18 years old and under. Tickets can be purchased online; at the Moss Arts Center's box office, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday; or by calling 540-231-5300 during box office hours.

Parking is available in the North End Parking Garage on Turner Street. Virginia Tech faculty and staff possessing a valid Virginia Tech parking permit can enter and exit the garage free of charge. Limited street parking is also available. Parking on Alumni Mall is free on weekdays after 5 p.m. and on weekends.

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Kacy McAllister at 540-231-5300 or email kmcallis@vt.edu during regular business hours at least 10 business days prior to the event.

The Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech presents renowned artists from around the globe and from close to home, with a special focus on experiences that expand cultural awareness and deepen understanding. The Center for the Arts and the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, with which the Center for the Arts is uniquely partnered, are housed in the Moss Arts Center. The Moss Arts Center is a 147,000-square-foot facility that includes the Street and Davis Performance Hall and its 1,274-seat Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre; visual art galleries; the four-story, experimental venue the Cube; and research studios.

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