New dances, new choreographers

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Having paid their dues through innumerable hours of instruction, sweat equity and performance, the valley’s up and coming young dancers will now show the Jackson Hole audience what they can do when it comes to choreographing - and executing - contemporary dances.

At 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, at the Center for the Arts, Dancers’ Workshop Junior Repertory Company will perform “Resolutions from the Ground Up,” this year’s New Dances/New Choreographers performance, an annual springtime rite of passage for  the troupe’s more seasoned young dancers to develop and hone new dance pieces start to finish.

The junior company, which offers instruction to dancers from age 12 to 18, trains throughout the year and produces dancers for shows that predominately feature the company’s young set. With New Dancers/New Choreographers, high school-aged dancers from sophomores to seniors have the opportunity to fully explore for themselves the process of fleshing out an artistic idea.

“Whatever they’re interested in at that age, you have to let them do it,” said Kate Kosharek, who directs the junior repertory company.

“Resolutions” features dances choreographed largely of the tenets of modern dance, though ballet-style pointe work and jazz movements will also figure in.

While one might expect a prospective group of choreographers in their teenage years to attempt to reconcile some of the easier youthful interests with the opportunity to create performance art, that is not the case here, according to Kosharek.

Senior Lindsay Thorkildsen has danced with DW since she was three. She said her piece, “Wrong Decision,” is “eccentric and weird,” and “dark,” quite unlike anything she’s ever choreographed herself.

Her classmate Sarah Fallon, meanwhile, imagines the chances awaiting her – at love and life – with “Stranger,” a more airy and lyrical dance.
“Resolutions” will feature music by the Euro-African fused Zap Mama, the Doors, indie rockers Modest Mouse and Sigur Rós, an ethereal rock band from Iceland, and a ménage of music from the 1960s.
There is a special free screening of the “Resolutions” at noon Friday, May 16, at the Center for the Arts.
Tickets for Saturday night’s show are $12 for adults and $7 for students and are available at the Center for the Arts box office. Call 733-4900 for more.

The valley’s growing and vibrant Russian ex-pat community this weekend offers a couple of opportunities to learn about and discuss Russia’s role in history vis-à-vis its cultural and political influence.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at Walk Festival Hall, the Russian Club presents “SLAVA: The Glory of the Arts in Tsarist Russia.” The evening will offer a multimedia tapestry of Russia from the time of Peter the Great though the October Revolution of 1917 and into present-day Russia. The evening will feature concert pianist Barbara Suhrstedt. Tickets are $10 for adults or $5 for children and may be purchased at the door.

Then, at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 18, the Russian Club will meet in the conference room in the Center for the Arts for its monthly Russian Tea Club. Suhtstedt will talk about Russia’s influence on Western music.

Photo by Andrew Wyatt
Brooke Fallon, Jameson Mitchell, Michaela Ellingson, with Madison Williams and Sarah Fallon, rehearse “Resolutions From the Ground Up.”

PERMALINK:
New dances, new choreographers | Planet JH News Article: General Music Arts and Culture

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