ASU Gammage kicks off 2019–20 Beyond season

ASU Gammage is gearing up for its 2019–20 Beyond season with a mix of internationally acclaimed artists, world premieres and performances like no other. For more than 25 years, Beyond has brought world-class artists into the community by presenting compelling work while connecting with Valley residents through artist residency programs, master classes and public performances. 

ASU Gammage recently hosted an evening reception for the performance series to highlight the upcoming season, with a presentation from Michael Reed, senior director of programs and organizational initiative for ASU Gammage.  

Reed described what each show has to offer and introduced a special guest of the night, artistic founding director of “Dancing Earth,” Rulan Tangen.  

Artists are invited from all over the world to be a part of Beyond from Tempe to Egypt; the ASU Symphony Orchestra will open the season with “Toward a More Perfect Union” and satirical comedian Bassem Youssef will close it. 

Reed says the focus of ASU Gammage’s artistic approach aligns itself with the message of the university’s commitment to inclusion. 

“The Beyond series is in philosophical alignment with ASU Gammage’s mission of Connecting Communities. We want to include everyone in everything that we do. Beyond artists are devoted to establishing belonging within the audiences, that ASU is a place for everyone,” Reed said. 

“Beyond is a powerful experience unique in the Southwest with amazing, diverse performing artists engaged in our communities. They speak a compelling common language that celebrates us all,” Reed continued. 

Tangen is one of the Beyond artists who shares that message and is also part of the ASU Gammage artist residency program. “It’s much more than showing up and doing a dance. It’s about honoring and respecting the lifeways that are here in this land already,” Tangen said.  

Tangen said the process and invention of “Dancing Earth — Between Underground and Skyworld,” set to perform Jan. 25 at ASU Gammage, provides a moment she felt “born for” and one she wanted community support to engage in.  

“I felt like I needed to have the supportive communities and indigenous native communities behind me to do this work. And soon after, we started to do our work, elders took note, and they started to share with us stories that they thought would be relevant and appropriate to share with the world,” Tangen said.  

You can see Tangen and the other mix of artists this season. Tickets are available at asugammage.com. 

The ASU Gammage 2019-20 Beyond season 

ASU Symphony Concert/Toward a More Perfect Union 

When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019 
Where: ASU Gammage 
Tickets: $20 

ASU Gammage in collaboration with the ASU Symphony invites you to a special evening of music, film and spoken word featuring work from a broad array of talented composers of color with arrangements by Tamar-kali (Academy Award nominee for "Mudbound"), Daniel Bernard Roumain (New York Times top 10 classical new works for "We Shall Not Be Moved") renowned spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, with co-musical direction by Jeffery Meyer of the ASU Symphony.  

"Home"

When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019
Where: ASU Gammage 
Tickets: $20 

Created by Geoff Sobelle, "Home" is a large-scale performance project that revolves around the life cycle of a house. Created through a mix of illusion, choreography, construction and live documentary, "Home" illuminates the messiness of life that transforms a house into a home. "Home" aims to awaken us to the current landscape of housing. The universal and timely themes of gentrification and migration are rendered in the choreography of ordinary people inhabiting and leaving a structure. 

Kealoha: "The Story of Everything"

When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019
Where: ASU Gammage 
Tickets: $20 

"The Story of Everything" is a creation story in epic poem format that traces our origins from the big bang to now, using science, poetry, storytelling, visual art, music, ‘oli (chant) and dancing. It explores the question “Where do we come from?” not only for us as human beings but also our Earth and universe, and takes us on a whirlwind of science, story and culture on a journey to the present — humans today and our stewardship of Earth and of each other.

A.I.M

When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019
Where: ASU Gammage 
Tickets: $20 

Internationally recognized dancer, artistic director and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Kyle Abraham returns with his company A.I.M to the ASU Gammage stage this November. A.I.M intertwines sensual and provocative vocabulary with a strong emphasis on sound, human behavior and all things visual to create an avenue for personal investigation and exposing that on stage. Representing dancers from various disciplines and diverse personal backgrounds, the performers of A.I.M create fresh and unique movement. 

"Flight"

When: Jan. 17-Feb. 1, 2020 
Where: Tempe Center for the Arts 
Tickets: $20 

Two young orphaned brothers embark on a desperate odyssey to freedom and safety. With their small inheritance stitched into their clothes, they set off on an epic journey across Europe, in a heart-wrenching road story of terror, hope and survival. Mixing graphic novel with exquisite diorama, "Flight" draws you into its fragile miniature world and allows you to contemplate its gripping story of two children lost in dangerous lands. 

Dancing Earth: "Between Underground and Skyworld"

When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020
Where: ASU Gammage 
Tickets: $20 

"Between Underground and Skyworld" is a multimedia dance theater work that will illuminate the practical, spiritual and cultural aspects of renewable energy, combining diverse intertribal perspectives with indigenous futurities. Fusing tradition with technology, indigenous interdisciplinary artists engage creation and constellation stories in tandem with geosensitive new media to conjure visions for a more sustainable future. 

Contra-Tiempo: "joyUS justUS"

When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020
Where: ASU Gammage
Tickets: $20 

Contra-Tiempo returns to ASU Gammage with "joyUS justUS." This urban Latin dance theater experience takes on joy as the ultimate expression of resistance. Whenever humans have survived immense hardship and injustice, prevailing with their humanity intact, the presence of joy has always been at the root. "joyUS justUS" reclaims the dominant deficit-­based narrative of people of color in this country as being underprivileged, voiceless, powerless and victimized, and flips it on its head by embodying stories of joy. 

Bassem Youssef

When: 7 p.m. Saturday, April 11, 2020. 
Where: ASU Gammage 
Tickets: $35  

Bassem Youssef, dubbed the Jon Stewart of the Arab World, was the host of popular TV show "AlBernameg" — which was the first-of-its-kind political satire show in the Middle East. Throughout its three seasons, "AlBernameg" became the most popular television show in Egypt’s history, with an average of 30 million viewers every week. Currently living in the U.S., Youssef was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people, under the “Pioneers” category, and continues to challenge power with one of the most powerful weapons: humor.