Results tagged “contemporarydance”

Keith Johnson / Dancers is the creation of Keith Johnson, currently Associate Professor who teaches both composition and contemporary dance techniques at California State University Long Beach. This past summer (well, "summer"), he was part of the Strictly Seattle Festival. We found a review of this show at St. Olaf, written by an opinion columnist who rigorously avoids having a strong opinion of the piece. God we love Minnesota. Here's the program:

Brink explores the ideas of risk, caution, and the messiness of beauty in the quest for perfection. Music: George Crumb.

Continue reading "Get Out This Weekend: Keith Johnson / Dancers @ Velocity"

SCUBA: The national tour presents works by three emerging national talents in contemporary dance: Zoe Scofield (YouTube) & Juniper Shuey (Seattle), LEVYdance (SF), and Justin Jones with Chris Yon & Friends (MN/NYC). We're fans of Scofield's work, which mingles ballet and modern dance, introspection and spectacle, and curious about the rest. Maybe we'll see you there.

Seattlest had high hopes for Dayton Contemporary Dance Company's interpretation of Jacob Lawrence's paintings, presented last night as a part of the UW World Series. Our expectations were met halfway.The evening was bookended beautifully, beginning with an iconic, stunning piece by local choreographer Donald Byrd and concluding with an energetic, celebratory hip-hop/modern dance mashup by Rennie Harris. You absolutely should go if only to see those two, both of which left us inspired and reinvigorated about the still endless possibilities provided by modern dance in the hands of fearless, innovative choreographers.

If you missed Reggie Wilson's group at On the Boards a few weeks ago, you have the chance to not only make up for it, but to add three other stellar choreographers and one of Seattlest's favorite dance companies to the bill. Opening this evening at Meany Hall as a part of UW's World Series, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company performs the Seattle premiere of colôr-ógrăphy, n. the dances of Jacob Lawrence. There have been many works of dance inspired by works of art (and obviously, vice versa), but this strikes us as one of the most inspired and poignant pairings we've heard of. We've long been a fan of Lawrence's ability to craft narrative and emotion with simple graphic representations peppered with explosions of color and implied motion (his "Ironers" hangs in our dining room, still by far our favorite).

Local dance collaborative locust debuted the world premiere of their new dance-video-music mashup "Mockumentary" at On the Boards last night, and it was one of the most intriguing, beautiful, dark, and thoroughly enjoyable performances that we've been to in a very long time.

Here's a special Saturday post, to alert you about the Spectrum Dance Theater double bill, The Miraculous Mandarin / Petruchska; the last show is tonight at 8:00pm at The Moore Theatre. Tickets are $24.50-$29.50 (plus TM fees). SDT Artistic Director Donald Byrd is known for taking contemporary dance in unusual narrative directions. This is a frank exploration sex and violence: a remarkable variety of sexual positions and acts of violence.