Dancers Lizzy, Amanda and Fiona of The Stone Dance Collective
Photo by Gabriel Bienczyki, ZebraVisual
The Performing Artists:
Spectrum Dance Theater: Led by Artistic Director Donald Byrd, Spectrum Dance Theater stands at the forefront of contemporary dance as one of the most daring and innovative cultural assets in the region. The Company has established a full season of performances presented at the Moore Theatre where Spectrum is the official Resident Dance Company and continues to expand its reach with national and international touring engagements. Spectrum Dance Theater will be presenting Tantric Voices, choreographed by Thaddeus Davis, once a dancer with Donald Byrd/The Group in New York and now an artist in his own right. Byrd calls the piece, “…quirky, serious, playful, intuitive, curious, kinetic, earthy, smart and full of surprises.” Davis has choreographed for Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Austin and Fugate/Bahire Ballet in New York. In 2008 he was chosen by the US State Department to serve as a Cultural Envoy to Portugal.
The Stone Dance Collective is a modern dance company that originated in London, England in 1993 but has been part of the Seattle/Eastside dance scene for more than 12 years. Artistic Director and choreographer Eva Stone never fails to amuse and provoke audiences through her humor, detail and unexpected approach to contemporary dance. Having learned the art of dance backwards (choreography before technique), Stone has developed a movement language that is uniquely her own. Her choreography has been presented in New York, Geneva, London and St. Petersburg, Russia. Locally, she has been commissioned by numerous companies throughout Washington and most recently as part of a collaborative effort (alongside Olivier Wevers and Wade Madsen) on Project Orpheus with Seattle Dance Project. Stone will be presenting Stick Figures, a poignant and unaffected examination of the breath and space between men and women.
Mark Haim is a world-renowned performer/choreographer and former UW Senior Artist in Residence. He has created works for Nederlands Dans Theatre, Ballet Frankfurt and the Jose Limon Dance Company, to name only a few. Haim’s critically acclaimed 'The Goldberg Variations' has been presented at American Dance Festival, the John F. Kennedy Center and other venues in Europe, the US and Asia. Haim will present Buoyant Despite Slump, a piece about “the window of opportunity created in a quiet moment of profound sadness and abandonment.”
The Sho is led by dancer/choreographer/visual artist Michael Rioux. His concern as and artist is “to be full of joy and discovery… while not predetermining anything.” Rioux presents Wild Fruit Study #1, a unique work with two points of departure, one utilizing the text of Henry David Thoreau and the other starting with an image of a middle-aged woman from the 1970’s in a small Midwestern town.
Seattle Dance Project: Julie Tobiason and Timothy Lynch are co-directors of this new modern dance company that seeks to use the technical prowess and professional maturity of its dancers to push the limits of contemporary dance. Seattle Dance Project creates a movement methodology where muscular strength and classical lines of ballet converge with the emancipating movement of modern dance. SDP will be presenting Because, a new work by James Canfield, Director of Nevada Ballet Theatre and founding Artistic Director of Oregon Ballet Theatre. Canfield’s piece uses nostalgic Beatles tunes such as “Because” and “Yesterday” to showcase the talent of the dancers.
The Phffft! Dance Theatre Company fuses complex athletic partnering and daring lifts with a keen theatrical sensibility, revealing human nature through the lens of intimate relationships and the everyday experience. Artistic DirectorCyrus Khambatta has presented work in twelve US states, throughout Europe as well as in Russia and Latin America. Phffft! presents Interview with the American Dream, an work inspired by anonymously interviewing people over the phone from around the US. The piece is, “one part treatise, one part expose on American’s genuine reflections of their beloved country in a reluctant state of decay.”
Whim W’Him is the brainchild of Pacific Northwest Ballet Principal Dancer Olivier Wevers. Its goal is to open the world of dance to a wider audience by combining the talents of dancers, choreographers, composers, singers, actors and other artists in unorthodox forms/ways. Fragements, choreographed by Wevers and created for Spectrum Dance Theater, is a play on the familiarity of well-known arias from The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute. One critic calls it, “…beautifully Mozartain: this is art at its most spiritually cathartic and challenging, entirely classic and entirely now.”
Coriolis Dance Collective was formed in 2008 by Natascha Greenwalt-Murphyand and Christin Call in order to foster an immersive and experimental atmosphere in the creation of new, highly collaborative works with artists of all disciplines. Tethered Apparitions, choreographed by Greenwalt-Murphy, spins a delicate picture of how "personal ideals tie us to one another and attach us to illusory worlds of our own creation." The piece features an original score by local musician and artist Matt Holmes, as well as art objects created by Call.
SD Prism Dance Theatre is a contemporary dance company founded by Artistic Director Sonia Dawkins, who has been in the Seattle area for the past 10 years and is also a part of the faculty at Pacific Northwest Ballet. Dawkins’ focus as a choreographer is drawn from the artistry, athleticism and “poetry” from within each dancer. Critics have said her works possess “athletic edge and artistic depth.” Dawkins is presenting Linkage, a study on the demise of national and social constructs in a “monetary context.”
Peninsula Dance Theatre is presenting a new work by Seattle based choreographer Lara Littlefield. Littlefield’s artistic influences come from her training background from both Pacific Northwest Ballet and Cornish College of the Arts. In A Final Gathering, Littlefield engages the dancers in a boundless community dance evoking folk Americanisms. Peninsula Dance Theatre, with Artistic Director Lawan Morrison, has been dedicated to furthering classical and contemporary forms of dance in the Kitsap County region since 1973.
Quark Contemporary Dance Theatre is a fresh new company created in 2009 by David Lorence Schleiffers, currently working on a dance degree in the UW Dance Program. This company aims to create and perform unique and thought provoking work, which highlights the natural movement of the human body. In The Kids’ Table, Schleiffers takes us on a subtle journey through the growing process and uses simple movement themes to highlight complex aspects of adulthood.
acornDance, with Director Aiko Kinoshita, performs pause, which will inhabit various locations around the lobby of Meydenbauer Theater, creating moving installations in reaction to the space and its inherent sounds and energy. This ensemble courageously plays with pushing physical edges and emotional boundaries through the art of improvisational performance. In doing so it offers a vision of the world based on immediate experience rather than polish, sensitivity rather than habit. Kinoshita’s work has toured nationally and internationally and reflects her interest in improvisation, natural physicality, dynamic partnering, and community.
