A feast in dance

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

By PJH Staff

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-This weekend Contemporary Dance Wyoming, an offshoot of Dancers’ Workshop and the only modern dance company in the state, will offer audiences a chance to watch a new piece from the intimacy of the stage.

At 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Center for the Arts, CDW dancers will perform “The Meal,” a collection of new dance numbers meant to interpret the common denominators – love, rejection, memory, redemption – manifest in a full life.
CDW resident dancers Bridget Bose, Joanna Bristow, Kate Kosharek, Carrie Noel and Neesha Zollinger will perform the suite of dances, developed in the months since artistic director Babs Case conceived the idea.

“I was interested in the meal as a metaphor for life,” Case said.
As principal choreographers for “The Meal,” Case and school director Jennifer Walker incorporated ideas from the dancers on each piece, creating a collaborative work.
“We explore rebirth and transformation,” Case said. Inspired in part by Buddhist philosophy, Case’s vision attempts to reconcile hope with the inevitability of disappointment. “We try to address all of the ‘yeses’ that live within all the ‘nos,’” she said.

Throughout “The Meal,” a dining table sits on stage as a dance prop. It also contributes to the thematic continuity of a meal, over which people commune and share experience. And, as Case pointed out, “We all want to walk away feeling full and satiated.”
A selection of electronica and nouveau folk music, including songs by Alarm Will Sound and Aphex Twin, will help the set the tone for a piece choreographed within the artistic tenants of contemporary dance.

“The Meal” is the latest in the “Up Close” series, an ongoing effort to bring audiences closer to the immediacy and visceral sensations - the grunts, heavy breathing, sweat - of each number within the suite. “The Meal” also marks the “Up Close” series debut at the new Center for the Arts.

Tickets are $15 for students and $20 for adults. Space permitting, $5 student tickets will be released 30 minutes before each show. Call 733-4900 for more.

If you can’t wait for the weekend to stoke your cerebral fires, the Borderlines Film Series returns tonight with a free film, appetizer and lecture. At 6 p.m. at the Teton Science Schools Jackson campus, the movie “Mississippi Masala” airs. It tells the story of a cross-cultural relationship in the rural South. Indian food prepared by Planet Palate will be served. Humanities scholars Candra Day and Loring Woodman will lead an audience discussion following the film.

Photo by ANDREW WYATT
Bridget Bose, Kate Kosharek, Jennifer Walker, Joanna Bristow and Carrie Noel rehearse for this weekend’s performance at the Center for the Arts.

PERMALINK:
A feast in dance | Planet JH News Article: General Music Arts and Culture

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