Dance Collaboration Encourages Deeper Reflection

Three Companies Join Local Group for Program on October 8-9

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Andrew Zender, azender@umd.edu
(301) 405-8151

September 28, 2009 — College Park, Md. — Daniel Burkholder / The Playground, a Hyattsville, MD-based improvisational performance group, will collaborate with four of the region’s top inventive dance companies to explore our relationship with water in “My Ocean is Never Blue” at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s Dance Theatre Thursday – Friday, Oct. 8 and 9, 2009 at 8 p.m.

Among the companies involved in the collaboration are the Coyaba Dance Theater, a contemporary West African dance company; Arachne Aerial Arts, a group specializing in blending the artistry of dance and the drama of aerial acrobatics through high impact duo performances; and Devi Dance Theater, a company focusing on original choreographies and traditional pieces rooted in the Indian classical dance tradition of Kuchipudi.

Taking inspiration from numerous sources such as the impending water shortage, irrigation, the molecular structure of water, tsunamis, baptism, the tidal zone of the eastern sea board and the Japanese Tea Ceremony, “Ocean” is an ever changing and evolving work that draws us to the edge of the river and asks us to reflect on what we see there.

Burkholder’s company combines highly physical dance movement with live music in unconventional ways to expand the collaborative possibilities between the two disciplines – but also emphasizes leaving their work open-ended. In a piece written for Bourgeon, Burkholder states “…the Playground has always performed improvisation; where other companies rehearse the very specific motions that might appear onstage, we rehearse the process that leads to those motions. Our work is often different with each performance.”

Elaborating on the overall theme of “Ocean” in March 2009, Burkholder told Washington Post writer Lisa Traiger "I had an interest in the broader relationship we humans have with water…not only for our survival, but in how we integrate it into so many other aspects of our lives, from ecological to sociological to spiritual."

“Ocean” also calls us to further reflect on questions that have direct impact on the local community. How have pollution and subsequent restoration affected our local environment and our oceans? What can we as individuals, residing in a watershed, do to have a more positive impact on our environment?

Further discussion on these questions and related issues will be explored in a free engagement event held prior to the Thursday, October 8 performance at 7PM in the Leah M. Smith Lecture Hall, rm. 2200 with Lee Cain, Manager of Education Programs for the Anacostia Watershed Society.

Tickets are $37 for the general public and $9 for full-time students with I.D. Tickets are available by visiting www.claricesmithcenter.umd.edu or calling (301) 405-ARTS (2787). The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is located at the intersection of University Boulevard (Route 193) and Stadium Drive in College Park, on the campus of the University of Maryland. A parking garage is located across the street from the Center.

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is funded by an operating grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. Funding for the Maryland State Arts Council is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. Additional support is generously provided by a grant from the Leading College and University Presenters Program of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and by a generous grant from The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation.