Momentum (2017)

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Event Status
Scheduled
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Feb. 16, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 17, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 18, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 22, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 23, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 24, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 25, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 19, 2017, 3 p.m.
Feb. 25, 2017, 2 p.m.
Feb. 26, 2017, 2 p.m.
Feb. 15, 2017, 7:30 p.m.

Artistic Directors Charles O. Anderson, Jeremy Arnold and Lyn C. Wiltshire

When the music changes, so does the dance. - African proverb

Join Dance Repertory Theatre in a celebration of the influence of African American culture upon contemporary dance in the twenty-first century. Momentum features nationally renowned artists including Rennie Harris, Abby Zbikowski, Adrienne Hurd, Netta Yerushalmy, Ananya Chatterjea, Charles O. Anderson and Lyn C. Wiltshire, as well as one of the ensemble's first tap performances, choreographed by co-artistic director Jeremy Arnold.

"America grew up with dance, and dance continues to be a barometer of life in America," shares co-artistic director Charles O. Anderson. "From the street to the stage, dance in America captures everyday gestures, social dances, cultural retentions, social and political issues and spiritual principles. These sources - coupled with a spirit of independence, risk-taking, exploration and persistence - have helped to form what we know today as American contemporary dance."

View the program for Momentum.

The performance is approximately three hours and includes one intermission.

Performances on February 15-18 include choreography that addresses sexuality and/or erotic dance and contains nudity. It is recommended for mature audiences.
Performances on February 19, 22-26 are recommended for guests 12 years old and greater.

Performances

Preview: February 15 at 7:30 p.m.*
Opening: February 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Additional Dates: February 17-18, 22-25 at 7:30 p.m., February 25-26 at 2:00 p.m. and February 19 at 3:00 p.m.

*Tickets for the February 15 Preview Performance are available for purchase in-person at the Bass Concert Hall Box Office and F. Loren Winship Box Office. Tickets are $5.00 for students with I.D. and $10.00 for adults. Convenience fees may be applied.

Program by Performance Date

February 15-18 at 7:30 p.m.:

  • Lec/Dem or How Do You Spell Femaphobic by Gesel Mason
  • (Re)current Unrest, pt. 2: In D'Nile by Charles O. Anderson
  • black is the new black by Oluwaseun Samuel Olayiwola
  • Hand in Heart by Adrienne Hurd
  • Under the Asphalt by Abby Zbikowski
  • Bach in Time by Jeremy Arnold
  • A-peeling by Gianina Casale
  • Slow Fade to Black by Lyn C. Wiltshire
  • Walking with Natasha by Ananya Chatterjea
  • Second to Khan by Dr. Lorenzo "Rennie" Harris

February 22, 24 at 7:30 p.m., February 19 at 3:00 p.m. and February 25 at 2:00 p.m.:

  • Bach in Time by Jeremy Arnold
  • Paramodernities #3 by Netta Yerushalmy
  • black is the new black by Oluwaseun Samuel Olayiwola
  • (Re)current Unrest, pt. 2: In D'Nile by Charles O. Anderson
  • Under the Asphalt by Abby Zbikowski
  • Hand in Heart by Adrienne Hurd
  • Slow Fade to Black by Lyn C. Wiltshire
  • A-peeling by Gianina Casale
  • Second to Khan by Dr. Lorenzo "Rennie" Harris

February 23, 25 at 7:30 p.m. and February 26 at 2:00 p.m.:

  • Bach in Time by Jeremy Arnold
  • Paramodernities #3 by Netta Yerushalmy
  • black is the new black by Oluwaseun Samuel Olayiwola
  • (Re)current Unrest pt. 2: In D'Nile by Charles O. Anderson
  • Under the Asphalt by Abby Zbikowski
  • Walking with Natasha by Ananya Chatterjea
  • Slow Fade to Black by Lyn C. Wiltshire
  • A-peeling by Gianina Casale
  • Second to Khan by Dr. Lorenzo "Rennie" Harris

About Guest Choreographers 

Ananya Chatterjea (Walking With Natasha) is a professor of dance at the University of Minnesota's Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, locates her research and teaching at the intersection of creative and scholarly research. She is the founder and artistic director of Ananya Dance Theatre, a dance company of female artists of color committed to social justice choreography and to making "people-powered dances of transformation." Trained originally in classical and folk Indian dance forms, Chatterjea specialized in the classical tradition of Osissi under the tutelage of Sanjukta Panigrahi. She has since developed a contemporary Indian dance language, Yorchha,TM based on deconstructions and extensions of the movement principles of Odissi, vinyasa yoga and Mayurbhanj Chhau. 

Rennie Harris (Second to Khan) is an artistic director and celebrated choreographer who creates hip-hop culture on his own terms by using some of the world's most influential forms of movement, music and storytelling to revolutionize contemporary concert dance. Since the age of 15, Harris has been teaching workshops and classes at universities around the country and is a spokesperson for the significance of "street" orgins in any dance style. He was voted one of the most influential people in the last 100 years of Philadelphia, his hometown, and has been compared to twentieth century dance legends Alvin Ailey and Bob Fosse. In 1992 he founded Rennie Harris Puremovement, a hip-hop dance company dedicated to preserving and disseminating hip-hop culture through workshops, classes, lectures, residencies, mentoring programs and public performances. 

Adrienne Hurd (Hand in Heart), a native New Yorker, began her training at the Joffrey Ballet School, School of American Ballet and the Alvin Ailey School. She has danced with The Neubert Ballet, Dance Brazil, Ailey II, The Jaminson Project and Earl Mosley's Diversity of Dance. She served as an assistant and rehearsal director for Judith Jamison (The Jamison Project) and has worked with Alvin Ailey, Michael Peters, Paula Abdul, Twyla Tharp, Garth Fagan, Donald McKayle, Graciela Daniele, Jeff Calhoun, Vince Patterson and Earl Mosley. Hurd has taught at the University of Minnesota; Open Look Dance Festival St. Petersburg, Russia; Dance New Amsterdam; American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive (NYC); Joffrey Ballet School; Professional Performing Arts School, The Ailey School and Steps on Broadway, among others. She is the resident choreographer for the Nomad Contemporary Ballet and has choreographed for The Ailey School/Fordham University, The Ailey School Junior Division and Lynch Ballet Company, among others. She has choreographed original musicals CRACKED, The Lost Boys, Open Rehearsal (Theatre for the New City) and SPEAK the Show (SummerStage NYC). 

Gesel Mason (Lec/Dem or How Do You Spell Homophobic) is a choreographer, performer, educator and arts facilitator. She is artistic director for Gesel Mason Performance Projects and has been an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder since 2013. She was a company member of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and Ralph Lemon/Cross Performance Projects and has performed with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Repertory Dance Theatre of Utah, Jacek Łumiński (Silesian Dance Theatre), Murray Louis and Victoria Marks. Mason utilizes dance, theater, humor and storytelling to bring visibility to voices unheard, situations neglected or perspectives considered taboo. Her current creative research collides the genres and cultures of postmodern dance and erotic dance in an embodied efford to find and hold on to what Audre Lorde calls "the yes within ourselves." Numerous venues and festivals have presented Mason's choreography including Joyce SoHo; 651 Arts; Bates Dance Festival; Claire Smith Performing Arts Center; University of Albany; SUNY Potsdam; South Dallas Cultural Center; Painted Bride; Dance Place; the International Contemporary Dance Conference and Performance Festival in Bytom, Poland; DanceAfrica and the International Association of Blacks in Dance. 

Netta Yerushalmy (Paramodernities #3) is an award-winning dance artist based in New York City. Her work aims to engage with audiences by imparting the sensation of things as they are perceived, not as they are known, and to challenge how meaning is attributed and constructed. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Jerome Robbins Bogliasco Fellowship, a NYFA Fellowship, a Six Points Fellowship and residencies at Gibney Dance Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Tribeca Performing Arts Center and the Institute for Cultural Inquiry (Berlin), Yerushalmy's work has been presented at Danspace Project, The Joyce Theater, American Dance Festival, Harkness Festival, La Mama, HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin) and Curtain-Up (Tel-Aviv). 

Abby Zbikowski (Under the Asphalt) is a choreographer interrogating dance aesthetics and culture. Zbikowski's work with her company, the New Utility, has been presented by the Bates Dance Festival, Dance New Amsterdam, the Gibney Dance Center and the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, among others. She has studied intensively at Germaine Acogny's L'École de Sables in Senegal and holds a B.F.A. in Dance from Temple University an an M.F.A. in Dance from Ohio State University. As a performer, Zbikowski has worked with choreographers Charles O. Anderson/dance theatre X, Megan Mazarick, Nora Gibson, Paige Phillips and Maree ReMalia. She has performed nationally and internationally with the Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project and is currently an assistant professor of dance at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and will teach technique and repertory at the American Dance Festival in summer 2016. 

Community Engagement Events 

Dance DECODED
February 16-18 and 22 immediately following the 7:30 p.m. performances
Oscar G. Brockett Theatre 

Guests are invited to join choreographers and members of the cast for a brief post-performance discussion. 

 

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