VARIANT Dance Shows
Every Dollar Matters & goes far with Cottage Street Creative Exchange!
Our Patron and Corporate Gems keep us Inspired to Create,
especially our Emerald Sponsor
A Few Shows from our GlobaLocal History
GDUFRN with Daniel Minter's 'a distant holla'
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PARTIAL PROJECT HISTORY - BEFORE WE BECAME THE EXCHANGE! |
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TOUCH THE SKY Tribute to Niles Ford Tuesday August 14th 2012 @ One Longfellow Square Portland, Maine 7:30pm Thursday August 16th 2012 @ OHCHS Auditorium 7:30pm |
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PEP Dance Project Show! May 7th 2012 7pm @ OHCHS
Residency dancers and teachers perform together in a fun night of dance!
Tickets at Books 'n' Things in Norway, ME and available at the door |
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ACORDA! (Wake Up!) and other dances January 6th 2012 @ OHCHS 7pm |
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Three's Company
Art Moves Dance Project Annual Fundraising Gala Friday November 4th 2011, 6-9pm Featuring the choreography of Sasha Campbell, Erin Hamlin & Kim Hamlin.
Photos by Emily Carter Delamater
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Death by Dance Photo by Emily Carter Delamater |
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Double OH Seven 2010
Double OH Seven was the name of a troupe show with seven very high energy teenagers.
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 Photo by Emily Carter Delamater of Kim Hamlin and Debi Irons |
Back to Brazil 2010 Art Moves Dance Project's performance of "Back to Brasil" on Thursday evening (to be repeated at Oxford Hills High School in South Paris on Friday) called two points into focus.
First, the Portland artistic scene could benefit from more variety in local dance performance offerings. Art Moves has the potential to become a very strong jazz company and welcome addition, thanks to artistic director Debi Irons' background of eclectic dance training, performance and teaching (including at Bates College) and her strong, well trained dancers.
Second, we all really miss Daielma Santos, who departed Portland Ballet a few years ago.
The luminous Santos, who is also Fred Garbo's longtime Inflatable Theater partner, now lives in North Carolina but included this guest appearance with Art Moves in this month's visit to Maine.
Santos radiates warmth in all of her work, from classical ballet to humorous mime, and a joy in dancing that can make the entire audience feel like her beloved dance partner.
Here, in Latin-inspired jazz, her Brazilian background may have provided extra fluency. Her torso articulation was wonderfully fluid and sensual, and beautifully set off by her fast-moving feet.
In periodic duets, Santos and Irons showed interestingly complementary styles. At one point, they performed a challenge dance to light and bright drumming alternating with a stronger, fuller percussion -- Santos sparkling to the light drum, and Irons pounding to the stronger sound.
Overall, the performance had the ambiance of a dance party, with varying groups dancing to a 90-minute medley of Latin music. It was hard to find the boundaries between the pieces announced in the program, but taken as a whole the dancing was pleasing, with elements varying from lyrical to tribal.
The choreography -- by Irons in collaboration with the dancers -- was an impressively smooth fusion of jazz with Latin dance. The underlying technique, and much of the specific movement, reflected classical jazz, based on hip, shoulder and rib isolations. Latin dance steps and flavor were integrated throughout, especially in Santos' solos.
Just watching Irons was a lesson in classical jazz technique, especially in her slow-motion sequences. In bends, she seemed to find extra vertebrae, progressing from one to another in incredibly smooth transitions. Her shoulder rolls and isolations were similarly impressive and expressive. In addition to Irons and Santos, dancers included Chloe Bergman-Ray, Sasha Campbell, Emily Delamater, Erin Hamlin, Kim Hamlin and Karianna Merrill, performing in an array of multicolored costumes, designed by Kim Hamlin.
Jennifer Brewer is a freelance writer, teacher, musician and dancer who lives in Saco.
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A Wild Patience 2009 Photo of Debi Irons Erin Hamlin Tegan Bullard by Emily Carter Delamater |
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Lovesick Sessions
Lovesick Sessions was a collaboration with the lounge rock band Moss Mountain Project around the theme of Love and Twisted Love. There was a dance set, a music set, and a combined set, performed at The Maple Room in Lewiston and One Longfellow Square in Portland. Photo of Irons by
Emily Carter Delamater
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Life After Cynicism 2007
Photo of Irons and Ford by Scott Vlaun |
