“The dance instructors at Eubie Blake,” said CCDC Artistic Director Helen Hayes, “were kind enough to let us take over their classes for two weeks, so that we could teach the students the basics of modern dance, and, we hope, push them beyond those basics.”

On the morning of March 17th, the company kicked off its residency with an informal concert at the school, and then Helen, Debby Kanter, and company member Donna Iriarte began to teach the almost fifty classes that occurred during those two weeks at Blake.

Donna and Helen worked the day shift, while Debby came to the school for a newly initiated after-school program. “It was for students,” said Debby, “that might not be in the regular classes or simply wanted more instruction.”

In addition to these classes, the company held an open rehearsal at Blake on Saturday, March 25th, from 4:00-6:00 p.m., a chance for Blake students and guests to watch what happens behind the scenes with a modern dance troupe.

“We were very excited to be at Blake again, continuing to develop this important partnership,” added Hayes. “That was the second year of a long-term relationship with this arts-oriented high school.”

“One of CrossCurrents’ goals as an arts organization is to target the teenage population particularly here in Montgomery County,” said Debby. “Blake is a great place to do that work, to give these young people both exposure to and appreciation for modern dance.”

«Cathy Paine demonstrating a phrase

The event had a double purpose – to expand the audience’s understanding of the creative processes that go into the making of CCDC’s dance repertory, and to raise much-needed funds for the company’s concert production at Dance Place in June.

« Rehearsal in progress

JOM’s studio space in Bethesda, MD was packed with parents and children, current and former students, friends and supporters of CrossCurrents Dance Company and its Artistic Directors Debra Kanter and Helen Hayes. Guest choreographer Cathy Paine led the company through several sections of her new whimsical work-in-progress, “The Art Versus Nature, Reflective Surfaces, Who Am I Anyway Blues.”

As she worked, Paine shared with the audience many aspects of her process. Kanter and Hayes also took the floor to conduct rehearsals, firstly of Kanter’s new work “Precipice” and then an energetic run of Hayes’s “Heat of the Jungle.” To the special delight of the younger members of the audience, company member Sarah Lowing wrapped up the afternoon with a witty performance of her solo dance.

On Saturday, May 30th at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, May 31st at 7:00 p.m., CrossCurrents Dance Company presents Crossing Boundaries, Creating Currents at Dance Place, 3225 8th Street, NE, Washington, DC 20017, 202-269-1600.  Tickets can be purchased online at www.danceplace.org ($22 general admission; $17 members, students, seniors, artists, teachers; $8 children 17 and under).  For more information, contact Debra Kanter at 301 254-3260. 

Now in its 13^th season, the Bethesda-based dance company is boldly tackling subjects from war to the nature of sacred space in our lives.  The concert will feature works by company members, local choreographer Tiffany Haughn and New York City-based guest artist Sarah A.O. Rosner.  Also included will be a special performance of the work of Meisha Bosma and Julia Smith by Joy of Motion Dance Center’s award winning Youth Dance Ensemble under the direction of Helen Hayes. 

“CrossCurrents Dance Company is opening new channels for artistic voices to take root and flourish,” proclaimed artistic director Debra Kanter.  “We are proud to nurture established and emerging choreographers and dancers from our home at the Joy of Motion Dance Center while extending a hand to emerging choreographers and dancers in Baltimore and New York City.”

Kanter and company member Katharine Mardirosian are directing Upon These Walls, a work that utilizes set choreography and improvisation. The piece explores the parameters of “sacred space,” and how we as individuals and members of a community come together to define what is sacred.  Finding sacred space can be both a personal as well as a collective journey, existing in the psyche while being firmly attached to the material world of artifacts, etchings and stories created and shared among cultures.

Inspired by letters and interviews of American soldiers who fought in the Iraq War, Tiffany Haughn will present Unsung. This emotionally provocative and timely piece portrays the heart-wrenching story of the war and its aftermath from a soldier’s perspective.  The false intentions of leaders, the gradual dehumanization of an individual when called upon to kill, the numbness and inability to adapt back home and the burden of survivor’s guilt are just some of the themes tackled in this gripping work.  “I was compelled to create this work,” said Haughn.  “Although my inspiration is specifically the Iraq war, I hope that the dance is timeless and universal and can tell the story of any war and any soldier.”

Sarah A.O. Rosner, director of the New York based A.O. Movement Collective (AOMC) www.theaomc.org, will present an excerpt of a larger work in process, 13 Variations on a Car Crash. The piece explores the grotesque beauty of wreckage – mechanical, emotional, and visceral.  Full of AOMC’s signature hard falls and heavy partnering, “13 V” follows two once-lovers through a wasteland of crashes, memories, grocery lists, and scrap metal.  “My main goal is to create evocative reinventions of the human experience – works that investigate the intricacy, wreckage, compassion, and mess inherent in the ways we live our lives,” noted Rosner, a recent graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and recipient of Dance Theatre Workshop’s Van Lier Fellowship. 

On Saturday’s program, the Junior Company of the Youth Dance Ensemble will perform University of Maryland faculty member, Julia Smith’s, Au Revoir.  This sextet addresses loss, grief and moving forward. The choreographer draws upon the loss of her own father to teach these young dancers the lessons of ‘dance theater.’ 

On Sunday’s program, the Senior Company of the Youth Dance Ensemble will perform local dance luminary, Meisha Bosma’s, Hawk. This piece was created for the company’s four high school dancers earlier this winter. Some searches are energized by an unstoppable drive.  We stand firmly in our place only for a short time, and then restlessness sets in.  Soon we are off again, soaring like a hawk, hunting down the next big search for something more, something bigger, something greater from within. Hawk is a powerful female quartet that mysteriously explores the nature of tunnel-vision in these restless searches.  

Baltimore based Charlie Birch will present Narrow Bog/Furnish Joint, a piece that aims to demonstrate the assumption that we are all connected. In some instances we are acutely aware of the way we affect and are affected by others. However, more often these connections become an after thought and we become fixated on our own convenience and success. If we choose to nurture our awareness of our connectedness, we can use our connections and the ripple effects of our actions to create a better world. When we begin to seek support from others, our connections can provide an opportunity for growth.  In the end, tolerance, empathy and community trump anger, envy and self-absorption.

]]> http://crosscurrentsdance.com/news/crosscurrents-dance-company-sets-the-stage-for-concert-this-january/feed/ 0 http://crosscurrentsdance.com/news/ccdc-to-perform-at-the-kennedy-center/ http://crosscurrentsdance.com/news/ccdc-to-perform-at-the-kennedy-center/#comments Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:56:45 +0000 admin http://crosscurrentsdance.com/news/ccdc-to-perform-at-the-kennedy-center/ March 10, 2008, 6:00 pm
Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Washington, D.C.

On March 10, 2008 at 6:00 PM, CrossCurrents Dance Company presents a diverse collection of pieces that include a new improvisational work by Daniel Burkholder and pieces by guest choreographers Tiffany Haughn and Darcy Mandell. The concert also features the energetic and intriguing works by CrossCurrent’s co-directors, Helen Hayes and Debra Kanter.

“Grace’s Flight,” translates Hayes’ finely honed musicality and spacious, sweeping and energetic movement vocabulary into a study of the intricacies of Bach’s Concerto in C Minor. The first and third sections reflect joyful dialogue through changing spatial relationships, contrasted by Hayes’ grounded solo expressing the human struggle.

“Into Our Eyes,” Debra Kanter’s new work inspired by her travels in Alaska, examines Kanter’s passion for the natural world and her personal quest to create a new definition of home. Utilizing improvisation and set choreography, the dancers manipulate real objects Kanter collected during her forays into the outdoors. Through this process she has sought to explore where in the heart home resides, and how each of our perceptions of this special space intersects as we come together.
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“… To Every Story”, is by guest choreographer Tiffany Haughn. It explores the depth of our beliefs and values, and how these convictions can hamper new possibilities. With much of the dance focusing on this clash, the middle adagio section delves into our sameness and role in the human journey.

“In The In Between” is an intimate, intense trio that explores the need for intimacy and our ability — or lack thereof — to find it. A premiere directed by Daniel Burkholder, the piece combines the immediacy of improvisation with the formalism of choreography to create a work that is thoughtful, provocative and surprising.

“At Last Light,” choreographed by Darcy Mandell, is dedicated to Silvio Olivieri, who died of cystic fibrosis at the age of 20. It offers glimpses into a woman’s life as she journeys through terminal illness. We follow her as she experiences isolation and fear, then alienation from her own body at the hands of doctors and finally, weary acceptance.

More information:

Contact us via the website
Debra Kanter: debbykklaus@aol.com
Helen Hayes: helenlhayes@aol.com

Jennifer Martin, Allison Feierabend, Heidi Bickey, Sarah Lowing