Washington DC: DancEthos presents audience favorites & three world premieres
Company:
DanceEthos
DancEthos presents audience favorites
and three world premieres
Celebrating the end of our fourth performance season and the opening of Dance Place’s new and improved theater, DancEthos presents a stimulating mix of repertoire highlights and inventive new works, including performances by guest artists Tina Fratello, Sylvana Christopher and Althea Skinner.
DancEthos Artistic Director Tiffany Haughn will present three dances. Convergence, Haughn’s new work, is an intimate and evocative duet that examines the paradoxical nature of relationships and how a common thread in a relationship can both unites us and brings us closer, and at the same time be an obstacle that tests us and tears us apart. In the energetic and combative quartet tête-à-tête (2011), Haughn demonstrates our animalistic, competitive and aggressive tendencies.
The In Between (2012) explores the soul shaking and soul shaping experience of living with a life-threatening illness. The dance, which was inspired by Haughn’s goddaughter’s battle with cancer, takes viewers on a journey toward a better understanding of what it means to be living at the border between this ordinary world and the invisible, unknown one. The audience witnesses a woman in the surreal moment when her illness is discovered, in her struggle between giving in to death and fighting for survival, and as she tests the bonds of her relationships with doctors, loved ones and friends. Ultimately, she reveals her strength, courage and hope as she transforms from a scared and desperate patient to someone who is beginning life all over again with renewed appreciation, clarity and love.
DancEthos Assistant Director Carolyn Kamrath's new work utilizes a cello driven sound score and minimalist movement to evoke a sense of fear of the unknown, as the dancers continually travel forward and back across the stage. Throughout, the dancers alternatively support and cradle one another, or move forward on their own paths, oblivious to the rest of the group, creating a united struggle that each dancer experiences individually.
In Breathe.Shift.Repeat, Kamrath's 2010 work re-set for this concert, four dancers try to understand a soloist who has experienced a trauma that isolates her. Initially comfortable with her separateness, the dancers begin to reach out and include her, but in some ways she will always be different. Set to the music of Rising Appalachia, the piece finds moments of quirky humor within questions of who is different, who is included and who is secure.
DancEthos company member Elizabeth Odell Catlett presents Sift. Ideas, thoughts and concerns are always racing through the mind. Deciphering them and deciding which ones we will allow to influence us is a decision that can impact a moment or a life.
Guest choreographer Gabrielle Campagna's Semigloss (2011) explores the unexpected but necessary relationships we encounter throughout our lives. At times flirty, other times suspicious, many times awkward, these relationships shape the way we go about our day. Whether we like them or not, encounters with others reflect the relationship we have with ourselves.
Guest artist Tina Fratello premieres a new solo work titled Ri…ppled. The piece was choreographed in restricted space, forcing the movement vocabulary in a unique direction. Through a variety of mediums, Fratello creates a work that reaches farther than its original confines.
Choreographed and performed by guest artists Sylvana Christopher and Althea Skinner, Actions speak louder unfolds as a consequence of words both understood and not. The duet, which premiered at The Telephone Dance Project earlier this year, writhes with tension between primary relationships, whether with one's partner, the creator or self. Original music by Ramtin Arablouei and video design by Desiree Bayonet--with contributions from the D.C.- based band, Drop Electric, and photographer, Maggie Picard--amplify the gravitas of this personal yet universal journey.
About DancEthos:
By making dances that reflect the beliefs and spirit of our culture, DancEthos works to represent the true purpose of art: reducing the distance between two people. Founded in 2010 by Tiffany Haughn, this DC based modern dance company is committed to presenting a variety of artistic voices and visions on stage, and to offering diverse performances that are appealing and accessible to the non-dancer audience member. DancEthos was a finalist for Outstanding Emerging Group at the Metro DC Dance Awards in 2011 and earned the critics recommendation by The Washington Post in 2012. DC Metro Theater Arts proclaims that DancEthos is “…stunning, captivating, relatable, romantic – everything I desire.” The Washington Post calls their work “varied and thoughtful” and praises Haughn for “having a knack for inventive ensemble work” and creating work that “shines through.” The DancEthos repertory is moving and high spirited and the full ensemble of eleven dancers perform their dynamic works with boundless energy and abandonment. DancEthos is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. For more info please visit www.dancethos.org
About the guest artists:
Gabrielle Campagna earned her B.S./B.A. in Biology and Dance from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA in 2006 and her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from The George Washington University in Washington, DC in 2011. She currently works as a physical therapist at MVP Physical Therapy in Federal Way, WA (near Seattle) and is a fellow in Manual Therapy and Sports Physical Therapy. She previously has danced with PA Dance Vision in East Stroudsburg, PA, CrossCurrents Dance Company, and DancEthos. "Semigloss", which she created for DancEthos, was selected for performance at the Joy of Motion Dance Project as well as the New Releases Showcase at Dance Place 2011.
Sylvana Christopher is D.C. native trained at The Washington School of Ballet. From The Ohio State University, she earned a BFA and has done cultural studies in Cuba, France and Senegal. Christopher has performed Glade Dance Collective, Rincones & Company, Bowen McCauley Dance, Arts United of Washington, Gesel Mason Performance Projects, BosmaDance, Contradiction Dance and Nancy Havlik’s Dance Performance Group. A founding member of Glade Dance Collective, she has performed many meaningful collaborative pieces and her choreography has been presented at Atlas Theater, The Phillips Collection, Millennium Stage, Museum of African Art, Dance Place and The Jack Guidone Theater. Currently, she is dancing for Word Dance Theater and teaches at Sitar Arts Center and Joy of Motion Dance Center.
Tina Fratello is a performer, choreographer and educator. Ms. Fratello trained at the Virginia Ballet Theatre, Ballet Magnificat, and is a scholarship B.F.A. graduate of Shenandoah Conservatory. During her tenure at Shenandoah, she had the pleasure of touring the United States and internationally to Russia as a soloist. Since graduation, Ms. Fratello has continued to spread her passion to those she teaches and performs for. Most recent projects have included Assistant Choreographer for HGTV’s national ad campaign for “Sleep on It”, Wolf Trap’s International Children’s Festival, and Joy of Motion’s Dance Project. Her students have gone on to dance with The Joffrey Ballet, The Rock School, and the American Ballet Theatre among others. Ms. Fratello has performed as a company member with CrossCurrents Dance Company, Unevenlane and DancEthos. She is in her fifth performance season with the award winning Next Reflex Dance Collective.
Althea Skinner, a dancer since age 3, is currently a company member of Rebollar Dance and preparing solo work with Deborah Riley. Since moving to Washington, she performed as a guest artist with DancEthos and the Eureka! Dance Festival. She also premiered in Roxie Doniphan Thomas' Unhinged at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage and Vladimir Angelov's solo, Face a Book at the Greenberg Theater. Althea began studying dance at the Festival School of Ballet in Buffalo, NY and the Halcyone Ewalt Perlman School of Ballet in Columbia, MO. She shifted toward modern in Houston, TX, where she performed with Rice Dance Theater, the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble, the Sandra Organ Dance Company and Chrysalis Dance. Althea has also studied and performed in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Brazil. When not in the studio, Althea works to advance social and environmental justice with CARE and the World Wildlife Fund.
What: DancEthos in concert with special guests
When: Saturday, July 26 at 8pm and Sunday, July 27 at 7pm
Where: Dance Place, 3225 8th St NE, Washington, DC 20017
Tickets:
$25 General Admission
$20 Dance Place Members, Seniors, Military and Artists (Advance Sales only)
$15 College Students and Children (17 & under)
Tickets on sale now at danceplace.org
Please visit www.dancethos.org for more details
Photo: DancEthos in Tiffany Haughn's "The Lines We Draw." © DancEthos
