April 16, 2007
North Bethesda, MD—CityDance Ensemble returns
to the Music Center at Strathmore on Friday, June 15 to present CityDance
Celebrates: Women in the Arts, a signature
evening of “power, passion, and purpose” honoring
the art and artistry of women in contemporary dance and music.
Staged as a part of Strathmore Celebrates: Women in
the Arts, the company brings to the
program two world premieres, two company premieres, and the
return of some of the most celebrated dances in the company’s
repertory.
The concert takes place Friday, June 15 at 8pm in
the Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman
Lane, North Bethesda, MD. Tickets are priced at $100 (includes
VIP seating and post-concert reception), $35, $20, and $15
(for students and seniors over 65). Tickets are available online
at www.strathmore.org or by phone at 301.581.5100.
The concert program includes Dust Bowl Ballads, a
choreographic masterpiece created in 1941 by dance legend Sophie
Maslow to remember and honor the American experience
during the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. This piece highlights
the deep history of contemporary dance and the leading role
that women in the field have played in it. Bringing us into
the 21st century of contemporary dance, 2006 Juilliard graduates Harumi
Terayama and Kyra Jean Green (also
a CityDance Ensemble company member) showcase the choreographic
talent that promises to lead dance forward as a fresh and vital
force.
CityDance Ensemble’s Rehearsal Director Meisha
Bosma, a Dance Magazine 2007 “Top 25
To Watch” honoree, and Susan Shields, a
White Oak Dance Project veteran, bring their choreographic
vision to the stage in two world premieres. Ms. Bosma’s
piece, Souvenir, is a dance-theater piece that explores
the mysterious nature of souvenirs as they are pulled out of
hiding to make us remember what we often forget. Ms. Shields’ White is
a female quartet that draws on the themes and lines of classical
ballet while emphasizing patterns, shapes, and movement that
contain a decidedly contemporary twist.
In this concert, CityDance Ensemble also honors its founder, Tara
Pierson Dunning, with the restaging of her Endless
Cycle, the first work ever created for CityDance. Ms.
Dunning, who wrote of Endless Cycle that it was
a work made to celebrate the strength and power of female
movement, forged the company with Associate Artistic Director Teri
Jo Brown and Executive (and now Artistic) Director Paul
Gordon Emerson in the fall of 1996.
“This concert is a fitting capstone to our own celebration
of CityDance’s 10-year anniversary,” notes Mr.
Emerson. “Tara had a clear, strong, and elegant vision
for the company, both in education and in performance, and
it’s a vision we have never veered away from. It has
proven to have exactly the breadth and depth necessary to start
a pick-up company rehearsing in the late night hours after
work that is able to grow into one of the few full-time salaried
companies in Washington a decade later, with an outreach program
touching more than 25,000 lives every year.”
The program also includes Han, a signature work by
Mr. Emerson inspired by the company’s tour last summer
to Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovnia.
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 25,000 students each year; CityDance
Centers, two in-studio education centers committed
to excellence in dance training for youth and adults; and FilmWORKS, a
creator and presenter of dance-on-camera. The mission of CityDance
Ensemble, Inc. is to advance the appreciation for and participation
in the art of dance through excellence in performance, education,
film, and artistic innovation.
