By Cynthia Bond Perry | May 5, 2011
There’s a dizzying array of dance concerts in Atlanta this weekend, from ballet to hip-hop to jazz to dance theater to post-post-everything. Scheduling them all is a jigsaw puzzle, and some are nearly sold out. But dedicated dance fans can, and should, try to see them all. Here goes.
Beacon Dance. Reflecting on 20 years as artistic director of Beacon Dance, Patton White will present “At Once Now and Then,” an evening-length movement theater work that he says “examines our journey into memory, both intentionally and unintentionally.” For years, White has produced free, public site-specific works; last summer he featured “A Bountiful Feast” ...
By Cynthia Bond Perry | Apr 29, 2011
When dancemaker Lauri Stallings came out for her bow last night, things felt different -- she looked relaxed, centered, confident and at home. It was the premiere of “Chapter III, This Is a World," in gloATL’s new home, Goodson Yard, at the cotton mill turned artists' community known as the Goat Farm.
A warm, rosy evening sunlight shined through huge warehouse doors onto a newly built dance floor. Among the audience seated on all four sides of the stage, the pre-show murmur of scintillating conversations hushed. (Performance photos by Thom Baker.)
Dancer Mary Jane Pennington stood behind a microphone stand, her brief ...
By Cynthia Bond Perry | Apr 19, 2011
Words that describe this year’s Modern Atlanta Dance Festival: steel-willed and intensely committed, open-hearted, gracious and playful.
Blake Dalton’s solo that ends CORE Performance Company's “The Moment Between” summed it up. With resonant voice and resilient motion, he narrated a poem, an artist’s statement on giving his life over to his art. As if throwing himself into a whirlwind, he spun around with breathless speed, legs slicing the air, red dreadlocks trailing behind. “Swallowing, being swallowed … dissolution … floating … emptiness, giving and being given over.…” He finished, lying prone, completely spent.
Such was the spirit felt at the Marcus Jewish ...
By Cynthia Bond Perry | Apr 14, 2011
GloATL has no more safety nets. As dance-maker Lauri Stallings prepares “Chapter III: This Is a World,” her collaborative performance group is taking greater risks, but not by ambushing a crowded mall or infiltrating a city park. These are more personal, creative risks, taken within the confines of a refuge, den or nest. They’ll reveal this intimate subject matter on a stage at Goodson Yard at the Goat Farm, April 28-May 1. (Click here for tickets.) Later in May, gloATL will perform the formal world premiere of “This Is a World” at New York’s Duo Theatre.
Last Saturday, gloATL dancers rehearsed ...
By Cynthia Bond Perry | Apr 9, 2011
WonderRoot will widen its embrace when six independent choreographers show new works in “Magnetic Drift, a Contemporary Dance Concert.” The community arts organization’s first dance production will open at the Magnetic Theater in Reynoldstown on Friday, May 6, and run through the weekend.
WonderRoot’s move to include dance among the arts it serves expands its support for local, early-career visual and performing artists with a focus on collaboration across disciplines. This is part of its larger mission to bring artists and communities together to inspire positive social change.
Chris Appleton, WonderRoot's executive director, explained that WonderRoot intern Helen Hale first sparked his interest ...
By Cynthia Bond Perry | Apr 5, 2011
People walked out of Merce Cunningham’s concerts for decades. His choreography defied conventions and required audiences to experience dance as abstract art, without narrative or emotional motivation.
Jonah Bokaer’s “FILTER” brought out some of the same response as his mentor’s work Saturday at Georgia Tech's Ferst Center of the Arts, though Bokaer’s approach to integrated media is completely different. But if Cunningham had been in the audience at the U.S. premiere of “FILTER,” he probably would have approved, watching with his impish smile.
Boeker, a talented young champion of New York’s downtown/Brooklyn experimental art scene, is developing design-based integrated media performances, influenced by avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson, ...
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