Experience the energy and talent of professional dance artists from across NC with the 27th Season of the NC Dance Festival. The Festival aims to support the creation of new choreography and the presentation of high-quality repertory, build and strengthen relationships between dance artists within the state, and provide access to and education about modern and contemporary dance to audiences and students.
This year, the Festival will perform in Durham, Asheville, and Greensboro. The NC Dance Festival returns to Asheville after 10 years away, and will be presented at The BeBe Theatre on Friday and Saturday, October 20-21. Witty, dark, playful, and experimental, the concert presents a wide variety of NC dance.
This season brings several changes to the NC Dance Festival structure from previous years. To better represent the variety of ways NC artists are expressing themselves, NCDF shows will be presented in both traditional stage spaces and non-traditional spaces that are better suited to experimental dance work. All of our performance venues will be community spaces, outside of college/university campuses, and each performance will feature a different collection of this year’s featured artists. This 2017 season is dedicated to the late Andrea Lawson, Music, Dance and Community Engagement Director for the NC Arts Council, in honor of her constant support of dance and art in NC, and the NC Arts Council’s 50th Anniversary season.
The Asheville performance is at The BeBe Theatre (20 Commerce Street Asheville, NC 28801) on Friday, October 20 (8pm) and Saturday, October 21 (2pm and 8pm). Parking is available in several nearby lots or meters on the street. Tickets are priced at $18 general; $15 students/seniors. Tickets will be sold through Brown Paper Tickets (http://ncdfasheville.bpt.me) and on the Dance Project website (danceproject.org).
Each year, the NC Dance Festival, produced by the Dance Project, presents work by some of the best modern dance choreographers in the state. Five of this year’s selected artists will present work in the Asheville performance, including the NC Dance Alliance/NC Dance Festival’s New Works Award winner Chris Yon. More about the artists and dances on the program:
NCDA/NCDF New Works Award Winner Chris Yon (Winston-Salem) presents a new solo for Taryn Griggs, “HOW TO PUNCH, KICK, STAB, KILL”. Witty and dark, the work draws inspiration from disaster survival guides, instructional diagrams for aerobic disco routines, and illustrations of disembodied hands in its idiosyncratic performance. Alexandra Warren’s JOYEMOVEMENT Dance Company (Greensboro) presents excerpts from the full-length “For Love of Country,” an exploration of patriotism, struggle, reconciliation, and moving forward. Natalie Marrone (Durham) transports viewers to an agrarian space through her duet “Thresh”, where the complex stories of the land and people are inextricable. Matt Pardo’s (Burlington) Contemporary Jazz solo, “I Insist,” explores physical and mental limits inside of an engulfing choreographic score. “Magnificent Mirage,” a trio by Megan Payne (Charlotte), investigates the experimental fashion photography of Deborah Turbeville, exploring abstraction, disintegration, and manipulation.
Outreach activities will bring these choreographers into local schools and community spaces to teach and perform in association with each Festival weekend.
