An eclectic showcase kicks off the 2015 Bates Dance Festival
Jazz theater artist Courtney D. Jones is one of the performers in the Bates dance Festival’s “DanceNOW” programs July 10-11. (Lynn Lane)
Presenting fresh choreographic voices from a new generation of festival faculty and alumni, the showcase DanceNOW opens the Bates Dance Festival’s 2015 performance season.
Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 10 and 11, at Bates College’s air-conditioned Schaeffer Theatre, 329 College St.
Admission is $20 for adults, $15 for seniors, and $12 for students. For information about ordering tickets, please visit the festival website — batesdancefestival.org — or call the Bates box office at 207-786-6161.
In a stylistic cornucopia, the evening comprises new works by post-modernist Karl Rogers’ Red Dirt Dance and Annie Kloppenberg & Co., featuring Bates dance professor Rachel Boggia; modern dance dynamos Kellie Ann Lynch and Erika Pujic; jazz theater artist Courtney D. Jones; hip-hop choreographer Shakia Johnson; and astute storyteller Lida Winfield.
Setting the stage for an exciting season, this opener is sure to intrigue and delight. A talkback with the artists follows both concerts.
Rogers, founder of Red Dirt Dance, is a lead dancer with David Dorfman Dance and co-director of Bates Dance Festival’s Young Dancers Workshop. His quirky choreography blends dance and theater to create stories of humor and human foibles.
The award-winning Kloppenberg and her dancers are based in New York and Boston, and perform throughout the Northeast. “By punctuating precise traffic patterns with minute peculiarities, Kloppenberg gives the dance its meaning,” wrote the Boston Globe’s Thea Singer: “Rigor can order chaos if you’re vigilant enough.”
Karl Rogers brings his company red Dirt Dance to the 2015 Bates Dance Festival.
Pujic was a founding member and rehearsal director for Battleworks Dance Company. A sought-after teacher, she is on faculty at the Ailey School, Marymount Manhattan College, and Skidmore College. Pujic, who has thrilled Bates Dance Festival audiences as a performer with Battleworks, joins the festival’s Young Dancers Workshop faculty this summer.
Kellie Ann Lynch performs with Doug Elkins Choreography, Etc., and Adele Myers and Dancers. She co-founded Elm City Dance Collective, which provides a platform for experiential dance development in New Haven, Conn. An enthralling performer, Kellie has participated in the Bates Dance Festival as a student, counselor, and performer with Adele Myers.
Courtney D. Jones, one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2012, is a dancer, actress, and teacher. She performed in Broadway’s First National Tour of Wicked in 2009 and performs frequently with the Houston Grand Opera, Houston Metropolitan Dance Company, and Hope Stone, Inc. She has been a Bates Dance Festival counselor and faculty member.
Shakia Johnson, a certified teacher with the National Dance Institute, has choreographed and directed more than 40 hip hop, modern, African, and lyrical works, including a work for the Celtics/NBA half-time show. A phenomenal creator and performer, Shakia has been a Bates Dance Festival student, emerging choreographer, and guest teacher.
Lida Winfield is a dancer, choreographer, spoken-word and teaching artist whose work addresses issues of education, disability, access, and the power of the arts. Lida, who wowed audiences last summer as one of the festival’s emerging choreographers, returns with her heart-wrenching and hilarious autobiographical dance stories.
