World Premiere Collaboration with jazz icon Tom Harrell

When Michele first heard Tom Harrell play at the Village Vanguard in 2014, she immediately knew she wanted to work with him. Tom Harrell is widely recognized as one of the most creative and dynamic jazz instrumentalists and composers of our time. His warm, burnished sound on the trumpet and the flugelhorn, and the unparalleled harmonic and rhythmic sophistication in his playing and writing, have earned Harrell his place as a jazz icon.

In 2015, the master trumpet player and his quintet made their first foray into dance by accompanying the world premiere of Apogee in 3, choreographed by Michele and performed by BalletNext.

Michele’s choreographic response to the challenges of using jazz, and its inherent dependence on improvisation, was to create a structure that would allow the dancers to both dance parallel to the music and have the freedom to respond spontaneously to the moments of musical improvisation. Apogee in 3 united two fundamentally different arts without altering the form of each. Working with Tom marked Michele’s first use of jazz in her choreography. 

Read more about this collaboration in the New York Times

Watch an excerpt of Apogee in 3