It's official: the American Dance Festival is moving its largest performances from Duke's outdated, outmoded Page Auditorium to the Durham Performing Arts Center.
While many productions will still be housed at Duke's Reynolds Industries Theater and (according to the H-S) at Baldwin Auditorium on East Campus, the move to DPAC brings the signature dance festival to a downtown facility funded with the help of the university, and intended from its early days to support the Duke-housed annual summer festival.
Also new this year: Golden Belt gets into the act, hosting a single performance. The ADF's release notes that one additional "Triangle" venue will also play home to one dance performance.
This year's inaugural performance, to be housed in the DPAC, will feature Shen Wei's arts company, which contributed memorable works to last summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.
From the ADF web site:
Focusing on the impact each dance form has had in the development of
current artistic expression, the eclectic works presented will look at
the boundaries that do or do not exist between the two. Many of the
modern choreographers represented this season – Paul Taylor, Twyla
Tharp, Laura Dean, Ohad Naharin, Mark Morris, and Shen Wei – have
choreographed works for some of the world’s top ballet companies.
Similarly, ballet choreographers such as William Forsythe have also
influenced the modern dance world. Festival audiences will get a taste
of this most intriguing intersection of forms at the ADF this summer.
The 2009 Festival will also feature commissioned World Premieres from
Festival favorites Shen Wei Dance Arts, Pilobolus, and new to the ADF,
Faye Driscoll and H. Art Chaos. In addition, a mini-festival of works
by Israeli choreographers, reconstructed works by Laura Dean and Twyla
Tharp, recent work by Miami-based Rosie Herrera, and two site-specific,
community-based projects choreographed by long-time Festival
participant Mark Dendy will complement the many dance-related
opportunities available at the ADF this summer.
Tickets to ADF go on sale on May 11 through Duke's ticket office and the DPAC.
As much money as the ADF gets from Durham -- and they get a ton via city and county grants -- I hope they will have a program for people to buy lower cost tickets and to make performances available to the general public and students who could not otherwise afford DPAC prices.
Posted by: TwylaTharp'sSweatyTights | March 27, 2009 at 11:08 AM
TwylaTharp'sSweatyTights might be the best alias yet...that cracked me up.
Posted by: Erik | March 28, 2009 at 05:47 PM