F.A.B. Winter Dance Showcase marks a decade with the biggest show yet
Bates dancer Raissa Vodounon ’17 performs in a piece by Tomisha Edwards ’15. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
Bigger and better than ever in its 10th year, the F.A.B Winter Dance Showcase returns with 18 performances by artists from Maine, Connecticut and New York — including the acclaimed Dante Brown|Warehouse Dance — beginning at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 7, at the Franco Center, 46 Cedar St.
Doors open at 7 p.m. with music by Les Bijoux Folk Orchestra, and the evening ends with a family-friendly traditional social dance accompanied by Les Bijoux. Admission is $15 for the general public, $12 for seniors and $5 for students (plus a small fee for credit card purchases), available from the Franco Center at bit.ly/FAB-15.
The event is sponsored by Bates College and the Franco Center. For more information, please call 207-689-2000.
“This fertile partnership between the Franco Center in Lewiston and the Bates dance program has presented over 100 dance works over the course of nine concerts,” says Carol Dilley, associate professor of dance at Bates and dance program director.
“For this year’s gala performance, many of those performers and choreographers are back, joining exciting new artists showing work for the first time.”
Artists new to F.A.B. include:
• Molly Gawler, known as both a scion of Maine’s folksinging Gawler Family and a member of the renowned Pilobolus Dance Company;
• Dante Brown of Warehouse Dance is a visiting member of the Bates faculty;
• Karl Rogers and Shawn Hove are friends from the summertime Bates Dance Festival;
• young Maine dancers from the Portland Ballet’s CORPS program, the Community Dance Project Ensemble in Saco and the Auburn Dance Center.
“F.A.B. gives audiences a rare chance to see a variety of dance styles,” says Dilley, “but it’s also an opportunity for the artists to network. Dancers of all kinds are working together to bring you this program, from seasoned professionals exploring new works to young dancers broadening their horizons in this field that they love.”
Performers also include:
• Hio Ridge, based in Denmark, Maine, and featuring award-winning artist Cookie Harrist and Bates Dance Festival collaborator Delaney McDonough;
• indieworks, led by Susan Thompson Brown from Casco Bay Movers, Portland;
• Debi Irons and Collective Motion, a collaboration between two important figures in Maine dance;
• StripWrecked, a burlesque company from Portland back for a repeat performance;
L Street Dance Theater from Norway, Maine;
• Bates dance students Talia Mason, Isaiah Rice and Deepsing Syangtan.
