Bebe Miller Company previews 'Landing/Place' at Bates Dance Festival

The Bates Dance Festival presents BESSIE Award-winning choreographer Bebe Miller’s Landing/Place, a highly kinetic, visually captivating work for five dancers using dance for the camera, interactive digital media and performance, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 29 and 30, at Schaeffer Theatre. Tickets are $18/$12 (students and seniors) and may be purchased by calling 207-786-6161 after July 9. (This production is appropriate for an audience of all ages.)

Inspired by Miller’s travel in Eritrea, North Africa, the evening-length work Landing/Place explores memory, landscape, cultural dislocation and the search for a communal sense of place. A seasoned collaborator and fearless pioneer, Miller joins forces with five extraordinary dancers to explore the advanced technology of “motion capture” with stunning results: live music by Albert Mathias, lighting design by Michael Mazzola, dramaturgy by Talvin Wilks, digital animation by Vita Berezina-Blackburn and media by Maya Ciarrocchi.

The production has, says the Columbus Dispatch, “the qualities of visual artmovement, balance, a sense of rightness and of magic.”

Miller has been making dances for more than 25 years. Her work has been performed internationally in Europe, Asia and the African continent, and nationally in venues ranging from New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music to numerous colleges and universities around the country. Her vision of dance resides in her faith in the moving body as a record of thought, experience and beauty. Her work explores the visceral, unruly edges of the heart and psyche to find a physical language for the human condition. The New York Times calls Miller’s movement “infused with a spirit that clings to the audience even after she and her dancers have left the stage. It’s not uncommon to leave a Miller performance feeling transformed.”

In addition to main stage performances, the festival offers a selection of free and low-cost events. Complete information is available at the website: https://www.bates.edu/dancefest.