Gaillard Center Presents Celebration of Dance and Music at Pepperland

Press Release

The Charleston Gaillard Center presents an incredible celebration of dance and music on Sunday, April 10th, featuring Mark Morris Dance Group’s Pepperland, a unique tribute to the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. This explosion of color, music, and dance will fill the Martha & John M. Rivers Performance Hall and energize the entire Gaillard Center, including the stunning outdoor lawn and gardens. The Gaillard Center will host events throughout the weekend, including a free movement class for people with Parkinson’s, a masterclass for intermediate and advanced dancers, and an open class for all ages led by a member of the Mark Morris Dance Group Artistic Team. Prior to the show, the Gaillard lawn will be alive with colorful cocktails and The Battery Brass Band performing Beatles hits. The evening will culminate with word-class dance from Mark Morris Dance Group.

Featuring an original score by Ethan Iverson, Mark Morris Dance Group’s Pepperland intersperses arrangements of

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

“With a Little Help From My Friends”

“A Day in the Life”

“When I’m Sixty-Four”

“Within You Without You”

“Penny Lane”

with six Pepper-inspired original pieces intended especially for Mark Morris’s profound understanding of classical forms: Allegro, Scherzo, Adagio, and the blues.

This colorful piece resounds with the ingenuity, musicality, wit, and humanity for which the company is known.

Experience premier dance and create unforgettable memories at the Gaillard Center.  Buy your tickets today (Each ticket purchase includes one complimentary signature cocktail, beer, wine, bottled water, or soda).

Lissa Frenkel, President & CEO at the Charleston Gaillard Center, noted, “We are delighted to present the extraordinary Mark Morris Dance Group for the first time in Charleston in over 25 years. We hope this joyful and whimsical performance is a salve for our community as we come out of the pandemic ready to celebrate the arts together. In the first of many site activations at the Gaillard in the coming months, we have curated a series of activities around grounds prior to the show including live music, drinks, and dancing on the lawn.”

For a full list of activities, please see below:

Modern Dance Youth Master Class

Saturday, April 9 | 2pm-3:30pm

CATO Center for the Arts

Register here.

Taught by Mark Morris Dance Group dancer, Aaron Loux, for intermediate and advanced dancers, the class includes modern warm-up, exercises, and rep from Pepperland.

Dance for PD® Sunday, April 10 | 11am-12pm Charleston Gaillard Center

Charleston Gaillard Center and Mark Morris Dance Group, in partnership with Parkinson Association of the Carolinas, present Dance for PD from 11am to 12pm at the Charleston Gaillard Center. A free movement class for persons with Parkinson’s, their families, friends and care partners, this class will be offered free of charge. Registration is required here.

Dance for PD®, a program of Mark Morris Dance Group, was born from the idea that people with Parkinson’s disease could benefit from the insight and specific techniques and methods used by dancers to guide their own bodies and minds. This award-winning, research-backed program strives to increase coordination, balance, flexibility and strength through music and movement from a broad range of dance styles. Taught by Dance for PD-trained teaching artists from Mark Morris Dance Group and including excerpts from Pepperland, no experience is necessary and all levels of ability and mobility are welcome.

Mark Morris Dance Group Open Dance Class

Sunday, April 10 | 5:30pm

All ages

Outdoors at the Charleston Gaillard Center

Public. RSVP encouraged.

The Battery Brass Band

Sunday, April 10 | 6pm-7pm

Charleston Gaillard Center’s Portico

Public.

The Battery Brass Band is Charleston’s premier ‘Street Beat’ style brass band, stirring listeners through the melting pot that is Lowcountry music. Battery Brass mixes influences from the birth of Jazz that happened right here in the streets of Charleston with flavors of Mardi Gras from New Orleans, adding a dash of Caribbean seasoning. You’ll surely move to the beat with a song selection ranging from traditional New Orleans tunes to modern popular songs. The band is a diverse mix of local music educators, performers, and members of popular local bands including the Charleston Jazz Orchestra. For this engagement, The Battery Brass Band will weave in Beatles favorites along with their distinct Lowcountry sound.

Mark Morris Dance Group’s Pepperland

Sunday, April 10 | 7:30pm

Charleston Gaillard Center

Buy tickets.

Choreographer Mark Morris, praised as the “the most successful and influential choreographer alive, and indisputably the most musical,” (New York Times) returns to Charleston with Pepperland, a unique tribute to the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Kicking off Liverpool’s season-long festivities in 2017, Pepperland features an original score by Ethan Iverson, interspersing arrangements of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, “With a Little Help From My Friends”, “A Day in the Life”, “When I’m Sixty-Four”, “Within You Without You”, and “Penny Lane” with six Pepper-inspired original pieces intended especially for Mark Morris’ profound understanding of classical forms: Allegro, Scherzo, Adagio, and the blues.

An unprecedented chamber music ensemble of voice, theremin, soprano sax, trombone, two keyboards, and percussion teases out and elaborates on Sgt. Pepper’s non-rock and roll influences. This colorful new piece resounds with the ingenuity, musicality, wit, and humanity for which the company is known.

Commissioned by American Dance Festival, Durham, North Carolina; BAM, Brooklyn, New York; Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity with the Sony Centre, Toronto, Canada; Cal Performances, UC Berkeley, California; The City of Liverpool, England, U.K.; Dance Consortium UK; Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; International Festival of Arts & Ideas, New Haven, Connecticut; The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; La Jolla Music Society, La Jolla, California; Meyer Sound, Berkeley, California; Seattle Theatre Group, Seattle, Washington; Segerstrom Center for The Arts, Costa Mesa, California; UCSB Arts & Lectures, Santa Barbara, California; White Bird, Portland, Oregon.

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