Choreographer Lar Lubovitch returns with his company to the Annenberg tomorrow for the first time in 13 years. On the program is ‘Concerto Six Twenty-Two’ scored to Mozart, a work was created in 1986 and premiered at Carnegie Hall at the height of the AIDS epidemic. The adagio movement is the elegiac male duet at its center. It captured the gravitas of the era and became a timeless dance document. Lubovitch‘s elegy to a generation of gay men lost to AIDS, captured the gravitas of the era and became a timeless dance document. He talked about making the piece this morning.

“I felt that the dance world had not responded to the presence of AIDS and I created an event called ‘Dancing for Life’ at the NY state theater. My response was to create Concerto 622. It is an essay on friendship. There was a demonstration of an incredible depth of friends helping friends to die or to helping them to live. ..that resonated to that moment. The central duet became very well known and resonated beyond the original motivation. The underlying context had a strategic connection at the time, the dignity they showed in the relationship and the spirit of community.”

Letter in the Times a year ago

To the Editor:

Thank you, Bob Herbert, for capturing not only the spirit of the American people (“The Obama Phenomenon,” column, Jan. 5) but also the reality of the man and the historic relevance of his moment for all of us.

Lewis Whittington, January 5, 2008

From ‘Still Lives’

The Spanish archway gives way to
an afterthought mock foyer that
is crammed with bookcases
over the passageway
is a black shingle
that Jack retrieved from a wet
heap on the street
with English font spelling
‘Eden Cottage’
Like some foredrop in
Mrs. Miniver
fade to an urban
cell of sterile design made
into our arena of slumber and sex
and celibacy and anti-intellectualism.
of smoked mirrors caste
at 4:24am
silhouette
the maligned sweat
of naked warriors
on majestic steeds.