Matt Pardo, assistant professor in the dance department, who previously danced for the Lucinda Childs Dance Company as a company member and company class-instructor, will be joining the company as a guest artist for the performances of "Available Light" this summer. He has previously performed this work around the world with Lucinda Childs Dance Company in major venues such as Theatre du Chatelet (Paris), Theatre de la Ville (Paris), Mass Moca (MA), Onassis Cultural Centre (Athens, Greece), and Walt Disney Hall (Los Angeles, CA), among others.

"Available Light" is an hour-long dance performance utilizing the minimalist choreographic structures of the seminal choreographer Lucinda Childs.  The score by John Adams, "Light Over Water", is one of Adam's most well-known compositions.  Frank Gehry is one of the most celebrated architects of his generation and has designed buildings all over the world including Walt Disney Hall, the current home of the LA Philharmonic, which John Adams currently conducts. 

"Available Light" was about the Lincoln Center. 

For more information about the performances, click  or visit

This past summer, assistant professor Matt Pardo, finished a seven-year run as a company member and company-class instructor with The Lucinda Childs Dance Company. The company completed a three-country tour with performances of a work titled "Available Light" at the prestigious Manchester International Festival. The company also performed in Jerusalem for the Israel Dance Festival and was a featured guest for the prestigious Biennale Festival in Venice, Italy, where Lucinda Childs received the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement. 

The company's final performance of the summer was held at the Manchester International Festival in Manchester England where they performed a work titled "Available Light." This hour-long piece is a collaboration between Lucinda Childs (choreographer), John Adams (Composer), and Frank Gehry (Architect/stage designer). This run of performances was recently rated by The Guardian as one of the top 10 performances of 2017 alongside some of the biggest dance artists and companies of our time.

Lucinda Childs began her career at the Judson Dance Theater in 1963 where she choreographed 13 works and performed in works of Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, and Robert Morris. Since forming her dance company in 1973, she has created over 50 works, both solo and ensemble. In 1976, she collaborated with Robert Wilson and Philip Glass on the opera "Einstein on the Beach," as principal performer and choreographer for which she received a Village Voice Obie award. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1979 for her collaboration, "Dance," with music by Philip Glass, and film décor by Sol LeWitt. 

Since 1981, Childs has choreographed over 30 works for major ballet companies which include the Paris Opera Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo and Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Company. She has also worked as choreographer and more recently both choreographer and director for 16 opera productions including "Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice" for the Los Angeles Opera, Mozart's "Zaide" for La Monnaie in Brussels, Stravinsky's "Le Rossignol et Oedipe," Vivaldi's "Farnace," and Handel's "Alessandro," voted Opera of the Year by Mezzo-TV 2013. In 2014 she directed a new production of John Adam's "Dr Atomic" for the Opera du Rhin and Jean Baptiste Lully's "Atys" for Opera Kiel in Germany.

The Summerscape Festival at Bard College commissioned the revival of "Dance" in 2009, which continues to tour in the United States and Europe. "Available Light" (1983) with music by John Adams and set by architect, Frank Gehry was revived for the 2015-16 season and is still being performed by her own company. This past summer, Childs was the reciepient of both the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievment Award at the Biennale Festival in Venice Italy and the Samuel Scripps Lifetime Achievement Award from The American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina.

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The North Carolina Dance Festival, currently in its 27th year, has selected a small group of North Carolina-based choreographers for its current season including Assistant Professor of Dance Matt Pardo. 

The festival has presented its artists in different cities/venues across North Carolina over the past several weeks and will hold its final show of the season on Saturday, Nov. 11, at the Van Dyke Performance Space in Greensboro (). Pardo also recently performed in the Asheville tour of the festival at the Be Be Theater in downtown Asheville.    

Pardo's work, "I Insist," is a self-choreographed solo that explores physical and mental limits. The work was originally choreographed in 2015 and has been presented at venues in New York City, Pittsburgh and Paris. The work utilizes a contemporary movement vocabulary that is manipulated via minimalist choreographic structures and methodologies.  

Pardo will also be teaching a in Greensboro through the festival on Saturday, Nov. 11.  The class will focus on the utilization of minimalist choreographic structures in movement composition.  

For more information about the festival, visit .

For tickets to the Greensboro show, visit .

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, the magazine for American Express card members, Heyman interviewed several artistic figures around the Pennsylvania city who are working to bring in outside voices.  

, is one of the organizations featured in the article. Pardo and Scranton briefly discuss their experiences inside of the Pittsburgh artistic scene and talk about The Blanket’s first project.

The Blanket is a producing organization that exists to expand and improve dance in Pittsburgh. It seeks to help artists realize collaborative projects that bridge the gap between the city and the global dance community.

The Blanket commissions choreographers and artists from the wider dance world to create work on Pittsburgh dancers, in Pittsburgh venues, in collaboration with Pittsburgh artists/organizations. It facilitates and produces new projects and bring revivals to Pittsburgh, giving local artists and audiences the opportunity to experience (and take part in) the broad spectrum of dance as an art form.

The Blanket’s first project (“Lucinda Childs: The Early Works”) was presented in the summer of 2017. The project was reviewed by several publications/organizations including , , , and , among others.

For more information about The Blanket, visit or

Pardo was interviewed for this article to shed light on how to protect the voice while teaching in a loud and crowded dance studio.  His interview focused on integrating his classical vocal training into dance pedagogy so that teachers can protect their voices while teaching for long durations.

The article was  and appears in the September print edition. 

Pardo and Perez will set the work on the Conservatory Dance Company in September and October and the performances will take place during Point Park’s winter dance concert in December. The piece was originally commissioned by Les Ballets De Monte Carlo in 2000 with music by John Adams. 

Pardo will also teach 2 contemporary masterclasses during his time at Point Park University.

For more information, click the link below:

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