The Lorenz Butterfly

Jessica Lang is an American director and choreographer based in NYC. Since 1999, Lang has created more than 100 original works on companies worldwide including American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey, American Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, the National Ballet of Japan, The Joffrey Ballet, and her eponymous company Jessica Lang Dance.

For over two decades, Lang has worked extensively for American Ballet Theatre. Her creations on the main company include Her Notes, Garden Blue, and ZigZag with the legendary Tony Bennett, as well as Let Me Sing Forevermore which was featured on the ABT Across America nationwide tour and Celebrity Cruise entertainment programs. Lang has created seven ballets on ABT Studio Company, was part of the founding faculty of the JKO School, and a teaching artist and is mentor for the company’s educational programs.

For opera, Lang directed and choreographed Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at Glimmerglass Opera Festival that was presented at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival in 2017. She choreographed San Francisco Opera’s 2016 production of Aida that was presented at Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera, and LA Opera. Additional commissions include creations for the Kennedy Center with the NSO, The Harris Theater, and Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum. For fashion, Lang was the movement advisor for Carolina Herrera’s Pre-Fall 2022 collection.
Lang was Artistic Director of Jessica Lang Dance from 2011-2019. The company toured to over 85 cities presented by major venues including Lincoln Center, LA Music Center, The Harris Theater, NY City Center, Tel Aviv Opera House, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, BAM Fisher, and Helikon Opera.

Lang, a graduate of The Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy, is a former member of Twyla Tharp’s company, THARP!. She is the recipient of a 2018 Martha Hill Mid-Career Award, 2017 Arison Award, and 2014 Bessie Award. She has been a fellow of NY City Center and NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, and named 2019 Caroline Hearst Choreographer-in-Residence at Princeton University.

Robert Schumann, born June 8, 1810, was a German romantic composer and influential music critic. Although Schumann was no child prodigy, he went on to become one of the most important composers of the 19th century and is recognised as such 200 years after his birth.

Life and Music

Schumann’s early musical progress was unremarkable. He was 10 before he began piano lessons and, despite his increasing enthusiasm for composition and a passion for Romantic literature, he toed the family line by enrolling as a law student at Leipzig University.

After an ailment in his right hand proved incurable, Schumann was forced to concentrate solely on composition.

Schumann co-founded one of the most influential musical publications, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. He wrote many of the articles himself, using the pseudonyms Florestan and Eusebius.

Schumann married Clara Wieck despite her father’s blistering opposition. Between March and July, Schumann composed five of the most treasured of all song cycles – the two Liederkreis collections (Opp. 23 and 39), Dichterliebe, Myrthen, and Frauenliebe und-Lieben – as part of a remarkable outpouring of more than 140 songs.

Schumann then turned his attention to multi-instrumental composition, producing the Piano Concerto, Piano Quintet, and Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, and 4.

Following the Cello Concerto and Rhenish Symphony (both 1850), there was a marked decline in Schumann’s creative powers and his ability to keep a hold on reality.

He met the young Brahms and predicted a successful future for him, but time was slipping away. Following a paralytic attack, which left his speech impaired, his hallucinatory periods increased in intensity, and he attempted to drown himself in the Rhine.

He spent the last two years of his life in an asylum where his condition gradually worsened. He finally succumbed on 29 July 1856.

<!– wp:acf/imageslideshow {“name”:”acf/imageslideshow”,”data”:{“field_635c2bb5980ac”:{“row-0”:{“field_635c2c07980ae”:”11267″,”field_635c2c34980af”:””,”field_635c2d5fd0955″:”The Sarasota Ballet Performing Will Tuckett’s \u003ci\u003eChanging Light\u003c/i\u003e | Photo by Frank Atura”,”field_649dadcbcd7a7″:””},”row-2″:{“field_635c2c07980ae”:”12181″,”field_635c2c34980af”:””,”field_635c2d5fd0955″:”The Sarasota Ballet Performing Jessica Lang’s World Premiere\u003ci\u003e The Lorenz Butterfly\u003c/i\u003e | Photo by Christopher Duggan”,”field_649dadcbcd7a7″:””},”68937867a37de”:{“field_635c2c07980ae”:”11249″,”field_635c2c34980af”:””,”field_635c2d5fd0955″:”The Sarasota Ballet Performing Michel Fokine’s \u003ci\u003eLes Sylphides\u003c/i\u003e | Photo by Frank Atura”,”field_649dadcbcd7a7″:””},”row-3″:{“field_635c2c07980ae”:”11266″,”field_635c2c34980af”:””,”field_635c2d5fd0955″:”The Sarasota Ballet Performing Will Tuckett’s \u003ci\u003eChanging Light\u003c/i\u003e | Photo by Frank Atur”,”field_649dadcbcd7a7″:””},”row-5″:{“field_635c2c07980ae”:”12179″,”field_635c2c34980af”:””,”field_635c2d5fd0955″:”The Sarasota Ballet Performing Jessica Lang’s World Premiere\u003ci\u003e The Lorenz Butterfly\u003c/i\u003e | Photo by Christopher Duggan”,”field_649dadcbcd7a7″:””},”68937883a37df”:{“field_635c2c07980ae”:”11250″,”field_635c2c34980af”:””,”field_635c2d5fd0955″:”The Sarasota Ballet Performing Michel Fokine’s \u003ci\u003eLes Sylphides\u003c/i\u003e | Photo by Frank Atura”,”field_649dadcbcd7a7″:””},”row-6″:{“field_635c2c07980ae”:”11268″,”field_635c2c34980af”:””,”field_635c2d5fd0955″:”The Sarasota Ballet Performing Will Tuckett’s \u003ci\u003eChanging Light\u003c/i\u003e | Photo by Frank Atura”,”field_649dadcbcd7a7″:””},”row-8″:{“field_635c2c07980ae”:”12180″,”field_635c2c34980af”:””,”field_635c2d5fd0955″:”The Sarasota Ballet Performing Jessica Lang’s World Premiere\u003ci\u003e The Lorenz Butterfly\u003c/i\u003e | Photo by Christopher Duggan”,”field_649dadcbcd7a7″:””},”68937897a37e0″:{“field_635c2c07980ae”:”11251″,”field_635c2c34980af”:””,”field_635c2d5fd0955″:”The Sarasota Ballet Performing Michel Fokine’s \u003ci\u003eLes Sylphides\u003c/i\u003e | Photo by Frank Atura”,”field_649dadcbcd7a7″:””}},”field_635c2e3dc51cd”:”1″,”field_649db2509e779″:”0″,”field_633708ed21fc3″:””,”field_6337093e432eb”:”1″,”field_633709f8e8907″:””},”mode”:”edit”} /–>Jillian Lewis is a high-end fashion and costume designer based in New York City.

Born and raised in New York, Jillian graduated from Parsons School of Design. She has been working in the fashion industry for almost two decades, most notably as Design Director at Ralph Lauren and Senior Design Contributor at Anthropologie. Jillian was cast on the 4th season of Bravo’s reality show series, Project Runway. Her collection made it to the final three and walked the runway in Bryant park.

She now owns and operates Jillian Lewis Inc. creating fashion collections, high-end uniforms, as well as costumes for the ballet world.

She has costumed ballets for American Ballet Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Sarasota Ballet, The Guggenheim Museum, The Baryshnikov Arts Center as well as Holland America Line.