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News & Events
We are proud of the high quality of work that is being created and rehearsed in our studios. Our Community News page highlights opportunities to see that work. We include listings of showings of work-in-progress, upcoming performances, and television coverage of the artists who are working at the Dance Center.
project agora Presents 2008 Home Season
WITH & WITHOUT WORDS
PERFORMANCES: Friday – Saturday September 19, 20, 26, & 27
at 9 pm (courtyard reception at 8 pm)
This home season interweaves the original songs of Bay Area soprano
and songwriter Katy Stephan with short dances choreographed by project
agora's co-director Kara Davis. Simulating a composers "set" of
music, several dances - although choreographed to music - will be
performed in silence. In addition, many of the songs will be
unaccompanied by dancing leading the audience through an experience
that alternates focus between what's seen and heard.
PERFORMANCES: Friday – Saturday September 19, 20, 26, & 27
at 9 pm (courtyard reception at 8 pm)
LOCATION: Community Music Center of San Francisco
544 Capp Street (btw 20 & 21)
San Francisco, California
TICKETS: $10 walk-in only
Box Office opens at 8 pm
during pre-show courtyard reception (WINE & BEER & TASTY BITES)
Liss Fain Dance at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
September 11, 12 & 13, 2008
Liss Fain Dance presents two premieres at their home season at Novellus Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on September 11, 12 & 13 @ 8PM. Tickets are $35 and $30 general admission/$17.50 and $15 for dancers.
Liss Fain Dance recently returned from a successful multi-festival tour across Poland including performances at the Silesian Dance Theater Festival in Bytom, the largest festival in Eastern Europe, and teaching at the Warsaw Ballet School followed by a performance arranged by the U.S. Embassy. In addition, the Company was awarded the prestigious Fullbright-Hays Fellowship to teach at the Warsaw Ballet School and the Warsaw Center for Contemporary Dance.
Among the program highlights of the 12th season will be the U.S. premiere of Ms. Fain’s Looking, Looking and the world premiere of a dance theater piece, At the Time
Looking, Looking draws on Ms. Fain’s experiences during the company’s September 2007 tour of Eastern Europe where she was deeply affected by the contrast between the beauty of the work she saw performed there and the bleak, gray after-affects of the fading communist regime. The sadness and melancholy-infused wit of their artistic collaborators in the host country was a sharp contrast from Ms. Fain’s experience of walking through the 12th Century ruins of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, where towering stone faces of the Buddha, carved into each side of every tower of the ancient temple, radiated timeless, peaceful introspection.
At the Time, to You Are (variations) by Steve Reich, is dance theater duet that takes place within an enclosed space. It is immediately visceral and emotional, a piece about a relationship. In a close relationship the two people are sometimes merged, and what choices do they make about union, separation and equality.
http://www.lissfaindance.org/performances/
Dance Day for Teenagers at San Francisco Dance Center
Dance Repertory, San Francisco Dance Center and LINES Ballet School join forces to present the second Dance Day on Sunday, September 14, 2008. We invite you to join us for a day of dance to include students ages 13-18 at one of the Bay Area’s leading dance facilities. This special day is presented as a fundraiser for Dance Repertory’s Vision Series Dance Festival 10th Anniversary Special and their newest Vision Series Extravaganza. Experience the most diverse, professional, comprehensive and innovative classes taught by esteemed master teachers! You and your students will also become a part of our newest Vision Series Dance Day Exchange. Directors will learn techniques to implement as in-school curriculum for teaching students how to observe, critique and write about dance & choreography. Students have the opportunity to attend LINES Ballet and LINES Ballet Training Program showcases and apply the curriculum as an extension of their in-school dance education.
Please note: This is an RSVP event only, no walk-ins allowed. Space is limited to 75 students and confirmed on a first-come, first-serve basis. Payment plans are offered, if needed.
Download flyer here or view more info at www.dancerepertory.org.
KQED Podcasts on Aesha Ash and Kara Davis
These podcasts can be found via iTunes, which can be downloaded for free at http://www.apple.com/itunes/. In order to subscribe, simply open iTunes and go to the music
store. Once there, click Podcasts, then do a search for KQED Spark. Go here for more info on the Spark Series.
Aesha Ash
KQED will rerun SPARK program featuring Aesha and LINES Ballet in December. Called "New Beginnings," the episode will air on Wed., Dec. 27 at 7:30pm and will repeat it on Fri., Dec. 29 at 11pm."It's a new beginning, and all new beginnings are difficult." -- Aesha Ash
In the career of a dancer, taking new steps as an artist can also mean changing your life. That's what Aesha Ash has done over and over, moving from the New York City Ballet to Switzerland's Béjart Ballet Lausanne and then to Alonzo King's LINES Ballet in 2005. Spark visited Ash during a rehearsal, where she discussed her adjustment to the third dance company change of her career.
Ash's willingness to move from place to place is an effect of her motivation to grow artistically as a dancer. Before joining LINES, Ash was about to retire from the dance scene; worn out from the scrutiny of her body that is not like most ballet dancers' stick-thin figures and the pressures of being the only African American woman in the New York City Ballet. However, her move to LINES has revived her love for dance through King's improvisation and contemporary choreography.
Aesha Ash has been featured in the PBS special "Live From Lincoln Center" and photographed for Bazaar, Marie Claire, New Woman, Dance Spirit and Essence. She is the recipient of the Dance Master of America Honor and was the double for actress Zoe Saldana in the dance sequences of the film "Center Stage." Alonzo King's LINES Ballet is considered one of San Francisco's premier dance companies, famous for King's sinuous choreography and his dancers' athleticism and expressive movement.
Kara Davis
"In the arena of improv, there isn't any wrong. It's all right." -- Kara Davis
As the host for the Dancer/Musician Improv Extravaganza at the Margaret Jenkins Dance Lab in San Francisco, Kara Davis creates an atmosphere where dancers and musicians can share their talents with each other and the audience. A dancer is paired with a musician -- based on names chosen from a hat -- to create a three-minute improvisational performance. There are no rules and no mistakes, only a chance to explore creativity with the combination of spontaneous sound and movement.
Davis is a classically trained ballet dancer who now focuses on modern and contemporary dance with Kunst-Stoff. She has taught at Berkeley Ballet and received an Isadora Duncan Award for outstanding achievement in individual performance for her entire 2002 and 2003 season performing with Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Janice Garrett & Dancers and Kunst-Stoff.
Spark visited Davis at the Dance Lab to see the outcome of her experiment. As expected, unusual but interesting teams such as drummer/ballet dancer were formed. For more information on the Dancer/Musician Improv Extravaganza, which usually occurs the last Sunday of the month, check the Kunst-Stoff's Web site under "Special Events."
PHOENIX DANCE
A film by Karina Epperlein
Congratulations to Karina Epperlein! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that the field of Documentary Short Subject entries has narrowed to eight films, from which three to five will earn 2006 Academy Award® nominations. "Phoenix Dance" is one of those eight films.
Nominations for the 79th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2007, at 5:30 a.m. PST in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2006 will be presented on Sunday, February 25, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network at 5 p.m. PST, beginning with a half-hour arrival segment.
About the Film
It seems impossible - but after losing a leg to cancer, accomplished dancer Homer Avila returns to the stage without crutches, performing with Andrea Flores a duet choreographed by Alonzo King. In rehearsal Alonzo says: "It's often when these obstacles come, that you have to reveal to yourself who you are. Who you are is forced to come forth!" We witness determination, skill and courage as Homer collaborates in his now "imperfect" body - and his "one-leggedness" turns into transcendent beauty.
Premiere:
Dance On Camera Festival, New York Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter
Reade Theater, Jan 6 & 7, 2006
Screenings:
-Florida Film Festival
-Nashville Film Festival
-San Francisco Int’l Film Festival, Golden Gate Award winner
-Cinedans, Amsterdam
-Jacob’s Pillow
-IDA’s DocuWeek, Los Angeles
-Mill Valley Film Festival
-Heartland Film Festival
-Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
-IDA DocuWeek Multi City Theatrical Rollout
-Starz Denver International Film Festival
If you would like to purchase this DVD, go to her website. Sales help cover the costs of the creation of this wonderful film.
