Dance Festival
Saturday, April 24, 2009, 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 25, 2009, 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Free and Open to the Public
The Inman Park Dance Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary with this year’s performances. In the history the program has presented over 375 performers, paid Atlanta area dance companies over $29,000 in performance fees and served over 10,700 audience members. The dance festival is the only free admission dance festival in the State to present both classical and modern concert dance. It seeks to promote dance companies committed to presenting and promoting great dance in the State of Georgia.
For the 2010 Inman Park Dance Festival, five local companies will perform. These companies represent professional and pre-professional performers, local choreographers, a diversity of age and body type, performers of differing physical abilities and both classical and contemporary dance styles. Following is a alphabetical listing of the performing companies and a bit about the work they will present in this year’s Inman park Dance Festival.
Full Radius Dance is a modern dance company that presents mature, choreographically complex works celebrating technique and physicality. Its focus is on skill and artistry; that some of the dancers use wheelchairs is secondary. The wheelchair may lend additional movement possibilities to the choreography, but is not the focal point of the work. Founded in 1990, Full Radius Dance, originally known as Dance Force, Inc. is one of only a handful of physically-integrated dance companies in the United States
Full Radius Dance will perform an excerpt from “Bar Songs,” artistic director Douglas Scott’s new dance work. “Bar Songs” looks at the brief relationships formed among strangers in the smoky confines of well-worn, disreputable establishment.
The Good Moves Consort is the primary performing ensemble of Good Moves and features dedicated pre-professional dancers. Its repertory features works by both local and national choreographers and includes historic reconstructions, ballet and modern works. Good Moves is a unique arts organization because it combines outreach, a dance school, and pre-professional and professional performance to create a lively community of artists, audiences and friends.
The Good Moves Consort will perform “How I Know I am Here” by Sarah Konnor, an alumnus of the Good Moves Consort. This piece originally performed in 2006 by dancers at the University of Michigan, has been reworked for the Good Moves Consort. The work draws inspiration from sculptures by modern artist Kiki Smith and explores the age-old human experience of grappling with our own presence.
Louise Runyon Performance Company, an Atlanta multidisciplinary performance company, was founded in 1989. Based in modern dance, its concerts frequently include dance, poetry, theatre, puppetry and music. The companies works explore the questions of empowerment and the human spirit; women’s experience; the environment and the natural world; and with issues of relationship, connection and community. Artistic Director Runyon has choreographed and performed her work in Atlanta for the past 29 years.
Louise Runyon Performance Company will perform an excerpt from Double Coat a duet performed by Runyon and Lori Teague that is a “stealth romp” in black velvet coats with film noir flavor. Teague is a notable Atlanta professional being an Emory dance professor, the co-director of Dancing Flowers for Peace and the co-director of Atlanta Contact Improvisation.
Zoetic Dance Ensemble is a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting the quality of the human spirit through the athleticism and artistry of dance to a wide audience by creating and producing innovative and accessible choreographic works. Coming from the Greek word zoe, zoetic means living, vital and animated which accurately describes the company’s approach to movement. Zoetic Dance Ensemble will perform “One Foot on the Ground” by Amanda Thompson. The work explores the joy of falling in love through contemporary dance and music. It is a fun, light, blissful piece with lots of humor and intricate moves.
Metropolitan Ballet Theatre is a premier pre-professional ballet school in North Atlanta with the mission “to train young dancers in the art of classical ballet and to promote excellence based on the highest standards of integrity and professionalism.” They are celebrating 11 years under the direction of its founder, former Prima Ballerina for the Atlanta Ballet, Maniya Barredo.
Metropolitan Ballet Theatre will perform “Festival di Verdi,” choreographed by Martha Goodman with music by Giuseppe Verdi. This piece and company will also have the honor of closing this year’s gala at the Southeastern Regional Ballet Association Festival in High Point, North Carolina.