VCU Dance NOW

Richmond, VA – VCU Department of Dance and Choreography will present VCU Dance NOW 2015, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, February 19, 20 & 21 at 8:00pm and Saturday, February 21 at 2:00pm at the Grace Street Theater, 934 West Grace Street, Richmond, VA. Tickets are $20 / $15 students with valid I.D. Group discounts available. Tickets will be available for sale February 1st. Call 804-828-2020 or visit Showclix. Parking passes will be available for advance purchase online. Saturday, February 21 is Alumni Night – VCU Dance alumni may purchase discounted tickets by calling our Grace Street Theater Box Office Monday-Friday from 12-4pm at (804) 828-2020.

VCU Dance NOW annually features new work by VCU Dance faculty and guest artists, performed by Dance majors. This year, the Department is pleased to present internationally known choreographer Doug Varone's work, DEMOCRACY, in addition to new work by fall visiting artist and former PHILADANCO company member Dawn Marie Bazemore. Additionally, the Department is pleased to present choreography by faculty members Martha Curtis, Robbie Kinter, Autumn Proctor Waddell, Scott Putman, Melanie Richards and Judith Steel.

A select group of VCU Dance majors will perform Doug Varone's work DEMOCRACY set during a fall residency by Doug Varone and Dancers company member Julia Burrer. Informed by Varone's study of a series of 1920s lithographs of communities in crisis, DEMOCRACY elicits feelings of decay and stories about the human condition and is an immensely detailed work that leverages angular movement perfectly suited to Burrer's style of dance and incredible talent as a stager of Varone's work. DEMOCRACY premiered in December 1997 with an original cast of dancers from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and music by Julia Wolfe. An award-winning choreographer and director, Doug Varone works in dance, theater, opera, film, television, and fashion and has been commissioned and presented to critical acclaim by leading international venues for nearly three decades. This residency marks a return to VCU Dance for Varone, who completed several extended residencies here in the early 1990s. Varone fondly remembers those periods as tremendously productive and among the company's first opportunities to disappear from New York City and focus on creating new works.

Dying/IN by fall Artist In Residence Dawn Marie Bazemore is an exploration of community rooted in the understanding that what affects one affects all. This collaborative work addresses issues surrounding pertinent societal concerns and how a community of people, regardless of their differences, can support each other and incite change. Dawn Marie Bazemore was awarded scholarships to train at Ballet Academy East, Dance Theater of Harlem, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, and the Joffrey Ballet School. After ten years as principal dancer with Philadanco, Dawn began choreographing for fellow company members and went on to create works for Danco II and Berks Ballet Theater. For the past seven years, she has served as a faculty member at Berks Ballet Conservatory of Dance, Wayne Ballet, and Center for Dance Arts teaching all levels of ballet and modern dance.

In Martha Curtis' new work, Parenthetical Maniacal (Fall Risk), five proud and deliberate beings forge a dreamlike but relentless path only to find themselves falling after multiple quests, larks, schemes and fiascoes.

This Borrowed Time by Robbie Kinter and dancers is an examination of the dynamics of group interactions and the impermanence of our existence. The choreography is fueled by the dancers' improvisations, Sufi and Yoga practices, and Gurdjieff's idea that most humans live their lives in a state of hypnotic "sleep walking."

Through the winding intricacies of shape, space, gesture, and physical contact, Exurgent, choreographed by Autumn Proctor Waddell explores the journey of ten individual women seeking clarity and compromise in varying relationships. In partnership with the music of Zoë Keating, Exurgent reveals physical struggles and divides that accompany the complexities of language.

Tensegrity, choreographed by Scott Putman, finds its form by stabilizing the oppositional forces of push/pull and tension/contraction while balancing the internal and external forces of sensual and sexual masculinity. Six men powerfully press open the spatial matrix, suspending themselves within the dance's infrastructure while simultaneously defining their individual identities within the work.

Diamonds in the Water, a new trio by Melanie Richards, visualizes the sublime, dreamlike Andante movement from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21. Stepping into this exquisite music is like stepping into a crystal clear spring of cool water. The lushness of the sound drives the dancing, subtly and inevitably yielding a perfect harmony of sound and motion.

Two women embody and reveal an ancient conversation within an unending flow and essential attention to the presence of water; a metaphor for the timelessness of cultures sustained by it in The Slender Grace of Water, a duet by Judith Steel inspired by the essential nature of water. The piece is accompanied by a traditional raga from northern India providing a meditative and ongoing through line of sound.

VCU Dance NOW is the seventh event of the 2014-2015 VCU Dance season. The presenting program of VCU Dance is committed to building and engaging dance audiences in the University and Richmond communities while providing opportunities for artists to present and create work. The presentation of work by Doug Varone is funded in part by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and by an anonymous gift to VCU Dance.

AUDITIONS FOR THE 2015-2016 ACADEMIC YEAR
Friday, November 21, 2014
Friday, January 23, 2015
Friday, February 20, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
For information on applications and auditions, visit: arts.vcu.edu/apply

Recognized by professional dancers and choreographers as "a place where things are happening," Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Dance and Choreography offers a vibrant and stimulating atmosphere where students prepare for careers in dance. VCUarts is ranked the #1 public university arts and design program in the country according to US News & World Report. For more information, please contact VCU Dance at 804-828-1711.

Parking

For Grace Street Theater parking, there are Click and Park options at our Harrison/West Broad Street parking deck. For these parking options, please visit https://vcu.clickandpark.com/ .

These parking passes have to be pre-purchased online at https://vcu.clickandpark.com All of the upcoming event names, dates, and times are listed on the Click and Park website and visitors that want to use the click and park option, simply click the date and time you are attending, purchase the parking pass and bring the printed pass to the parking deck to get scanned in. You will place your click and park pass in the window of your parked vehicle.

There is also parking in the VCU HH lot across the street from the theater and in the VCU BB one block next door to RamTech. You will pay by parking space for this option upon arrival. There is also street parking nearby where available.

We highly recommend using the Click and Park parking option due to the amount of heavy traffic flow from nearby VCU campus events.