DC-based CityDance creates interesection between dance and global warming

Presented April 12 & 13 as part of this season’s In the Studio series at the Music Center at Strathmore, the concert features ODC/San Francisco Artistic Director Brenda Way's On a Train Heading South, a world premiere by renowned Chilean choreographer Isabel Croxatto, and a new dance by company member Bruno Augusto. Warmer—a concert for today and about tomorrow—promises to unfold intriguing voices, surprising insight, and a challenging reality.

The concert takes place Saturday, April 12 at 8:30pm and Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 7pm in Room 405 at the Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD. Tickets are priced at $15 and are available in person at the Strathmore Ticket Office (5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD), online at www.strathmore.org, or by phone at 301.581.5100. Seating is general admission. A post-performance discussion with the dancers, choreographers, and a global warming expert from the World Wildlife Fund will follow the Saturday evening performance.

Global warming has long been a pressing issue for CityDance Artistic Director Paul Gordon Emerson, who plans to build concerts around this subject for several seasons to come.

“I have always been a believer in the power of art to speak to political and social issues,” comments Emerson. “With this and future programs, we hope to use art as a draw that can create a call to action. Global warming is an issue acutely relevant to this city, nation, and world and I think that organizations from every sector—including the arts—should get involved.”

A highlight of the program is On a Train Heading South, a brave ensemble piece choreographed in 2005 by Brenda Way, Artistic Director of the dance company ODC/San Francisco. Inspired by the crisis brought about by the melting of the polar ice caps, On a Train Heading South explores human complacency and collective denial in the face of global warming and its implications. Developed in collaboration with composer Jack Perla and stage and light designer Alexander V. Nichols, the choreography is accented by the melting of 12 giant ice blocks hovering above the stage.

Ms. Way and the entire 10-member company of ODC/San Francisco spent a week in Washington, DC teaching and rehearsing the 27-minute piece with the members of CityDance Ensemble. This collaboration marked the first time that Ms. Way licensed one of her works to another dance company.

In another collaboration, Isabel Croxatto, a native of Santiago, Chile, is in residence with CityDance for the four weeks leading up to the concert to create a piece about global warming. Ms. Croxatto directs her own company Grupo ABUNDANZA and teaches dance at Finis Terrae University. A biology major while at the University of Chile, Croxatto’s interest in the intersection of dance and global warming stems from an urgency to help the planet through the unique abilities and avenues of an artist. Her world premiere for this concert, The Revolution of Butterflies, centers on the innate desire to dance, the process of metamorphosis, and the analogy of the body as a tree.

The third piece on the program is a new duet choreographed by CityDance company member Bruno Augusto. Mr. Augusto will perform in the piece with CityDance Rehearsal Director Christopher K. Morgan.

A final highlight of the program is a live performance of original music composed by Levine School of Music Director of Composition & Theory Frances McKay, a longtime collaborator with CityDance Ensemble. Using piano and computer-generated sound, A Rising Tide reflects Ms. McKay’s childhood on the Tidewater coast, a beautiful place that she hopes will remain intact to haunt the imaginations of future artists as it has hers.

A blog of videos, photos, and writings about the creative process leading up to this concert can be viewed at powerpassionpurpose.blogspot.com.

About CityDance Ensemble, Inc.
CityDance Ensemble, Inc. is the parent organization to CityDance Ensemble, an award-winning contemporary repertory dance company; Early Arts, an arts outreach program for youth serving more than 15,000 students each year; CityDance Education Centers, facilities committed to excellence in dance training for youth and adults; and FilmWORKS, a creator and presenter of dance-on-camera. The mission of CityDance is to advance the appreciation for and participation in the art of dance through excellence in performance, education, film, and artistic innovation.