Looking for something exciting to do this week? Check out VelocityDC’s Dance Picks for 01.27.10 – 01.31.10.
American Ballet Theatre
Time: January 26th – 30th at 7:30pm & January 30th at 1:30pm
Location: Kennedy Center Opera House – 2700 F St. NW, Washington, DC
Tickets: $29.00 – $99.00. Tickets available online at kennedy-center.org or call 800.444.1324.
Full-length and Mixed Repertory Programs. A mainstay of the Kennedy Center’s ballet programming since the beginning, American Ballet Theatre returns to the Opera House with two programs, including a full-length production of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet and a mixed repertory program to be carefully selected from its vast and acclaimed repertoire. As the Center’s long-time patrons know, every American Ballet Theatre performance is an event not to be missed. In talent, size, scope of work, and every other measure of a ballet company’s greatness, ABT ranks among the most respected in the world. The company stands unparalleled in its sheer ability to transport an audience through form, motion, and drama.
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Time: January 29th & 30th at 8pm
Location: Kennedy Center, Eisenhower Theater – 2700 F St. NW, Washington, DC
Tickets: $22.00 – $65.00. Tickets available online at kennedy-center.org or call 800.444.1324.
Returning to the Kennedy Center for the first time since 1995, Cloud Gate performs Lin Hwai-min’s meditative, tai chi–inspired Moon Water. On a black stage with white brush strokes reminiscent of ripples, mirrors suspended in midair reflect the dancers in white billowy costumes. Water seeps onto the stage and creates “one of the most beautiful moments…one hears only the water ripple over the edge of the apron” (Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin). Danced to music from Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello recorded by Mischa Maisky, Moon Water is a metaphor of a Buddhist proverb: “Flowers in a mirror and moon on the water are both illusory.” Its movements describe the ideal state of tai chi practitioners: “Energy flows as water, while the spirit shines as the moon.”
27th Annual Choreographers’ Showcase at Maryland
Time: January 30th at 3pm & 8pm
Location: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center – University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Tickets: $25.00 general; $9.00 students. Tickets available online at claricesmithcenter.umd.edu or call 301.454.ARTS.
Numerous up-and-coming dance artists make their homes in Maryland, Virginia and DC. The Clarice Smith Center and the Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission collaborate once again to spotlight diverse and fresh talents from the region’s dance community in this adjudicated mixed program.
Winter Heat
Time: January 30th at 8pm & January 31st at 4pm
Location: Dance Place - 3225 8th St. NE, Washington, DC
Tickets: $8.00-$30.00. More info at danceplace.org.
Warm up with this hot performance of hip hop, step, West African, and contemporary dance by Coyaba Dance Theater, StepAfrika! and Gesel Mason.
Step Afrika! will be premiering a new work which is their first merger with hip hop music. In addition they will perform a work created in June 2009 called 466[[][[]]nine]4. Choreographed by Jakari Sherman, the work investigates Step Afrika’s process of exchange between two art forms: stepping and the South African gumboot dance. The dance also pays homage to Nelson Mandela, first president of a democratic Republic of South Africa.
Coyaba Dance Theater will perform Soko/Balante, a traditional West African dance. Balante is a warrior dance from Guinea Bissau and Soko (rites of passage) is from the city of Boke in Guinea West Africa, Baga ethnic group. Coyaba learned Balante in 2007 during their annual Dance & Culture Residency in Senegal, West Africa.
*DCypher Dance Presents DCypher 10.2: Co-Ed
Time: January 30th at 8pm & January 31st at 7pm
Location: The Jack Guidone Theater at Joy of Motion, Friendship Heights – 5207 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC
Tickets: $15.00 general admission in advance, $20.00 general admission at the door (cash only), $12.00 senior citizens & children under 12. More info at joyofmotion.org.
Featuring new and innovative works by Nikki R. Gambhir, Juliana Calderon, Jason Anderson, individual DCypher members and JOMDC youth Hip Hop companies.
