KARAR DANCE COMPANY

KARAR DANCE COMPANY

April 28th, 2017 at 8:00pm

Tickets: $10/ $5 Students

KARAR DANCE COMPANY is a modern and contemporary dance company comprised of Artistic Director and Choreographer, Kara Robertson, and six permanent performing artists. The company currently operates as a project-based dance company with future plans of becoming a permanent dance force in the Richmond community. Five members are Virginia Commonwealth University graduates and five are also native Richmonders and all are under the age of 28.

Robertson's work showcases brief moments, fleeting images of bodies moving, intentional spatial patterns, and expanse of time. Juxtaposed strength and fragility creates cavities and layering where the spaces between display tension. Every movement defines the stage geography and lives within the atmosphere created. Push-pull dynamics mold and melt the subject matter and blur the lines of literality. She displays visceral beauty in the unknown and immediacy of abstraction. KARAR DANCE COMPANY's first performance as a company will feature two reprised works and two world premieres, all choreographed by Artistic Director Kara Robertson.

"Amid" (2015) showcases powerful, high energy movement that complements the musical score of Nico Muhly, performed by eighth blackbird. The work highlights the character traits of introverts in a stressed and deafening environment. Four dancers interact in a busy space, some thrive while others merely survive. "Amid" was first shown in LANDING 2015 Fall Senior Project Concert and later performed at the MId-Atlantic Region Conference of the American College Dance Association and selected by adjudicators to perform at the National Conference in Washington, D.C. at the prestigious John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The accomplishment was published in an article in The Richmond Times-Dispatch in May 2016.

"StandStill" (2016) premiered in New York City as a part of Doug Varone and Dancers' elite program DEVICES. This duet explores the state of uncertainty one feels when everything around them seems to be changing. The dancers try to find stability as they search for control.

The company's first world premiere is performed and choreographed by Artistic Director and Choreographer, Kara Robertson, and features live performance by local violinist, Savannah Hatcher.

Second world premiere, "Kaizen" (2017), plays on the varying emotions of progress. "Kaizen" is derived from Japanese, meaning "change for better" and combines the word kai, meaning change, and zen, meaning good. In this work, the six dancers strive for improvement; their movement overlays both immediate and continuous progression through sharp accents and splaying of the limbs.

Artistic Director and Choreographer:

Kara Robertson

Company Dancers:

Caroline Echevarria

Anna Jane Glascock

Corin Illsley

Chelsea Jones

Amy Perkinson

Carol Taylor

Guest Dancer:

Ross Honaker

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