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THE LISTINGS: APRIL 29-MAY 5

THE LISTINGS: APRIL 29-MAY 5; PAT GRANEY COMPANY

This Seattle troupe comes to Dance Theater Workshop with the New York premiere of "the Vivian girls" (above), inspired by the life and art of Henry Darger, a notoriously reclusive Chicago artist who mopped floors by day for a charity organization. But at night in his crowded one-room apartment, he created his own fantasy realm in the form of a lavishly illustrated 15,000-page novel and 300 paintings. Darger's writings and artworks chronicle the turbulent battles of the innocent Vivian sisters against an evil male empire. The images are often as disturbing as they are fantastic, for they abound with psychological implications of cruelty and enslavement. Pat Graney, a choreographer who often takes the visual arts as a point of departure, will have reproductions of some of Darger's imagery projected during her work for five dancers, costumed like characters from the paintings and novel. For instance, the Vivian girls are in brunette wigs and white dresses, while butterfly-like creatures wear colorful wings and dance en pointe. And all the adventures take place on a stage cluttered with giant books. (Opens Wednesday, through May 7, at 7:30 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212)924-0077 or www.dtw.org. Tickets: $20, or $12 for members, students and 60+.) JACK ANDERSON

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section E, Page 24 of the National edition with the headline: THE LISTINGS: APRIL 29-MAY 5; PAT GRANEY COMPANY. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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