AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL: Made in NC

Reynolds Industries Theater 125 Science Drive Bryan University Center, Durham, NC, United States

The Made in NC program features the world premiere of four ADF-commissioned works by North Carolina artists. Dom-Sebastian Alexis, a Greensboro native, is a Hip-Hop and Contemporary Juxtaposition Artist trained in various degrees of Street Dance, Social Grooves, and contemporary dance techniques and has devoted their life to understanding dance diversity. Iyun Ashani Harrison, the founder and artistic director of the Durham-based Ballet Ashani – A Contemporary Ballet, and professor of dance at Duke University, collaborates with and presents the work of artists of color and women to expand racial and cultural diversity in ballet to attract new audiences. Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen are the co-founders of Stewart/Owen Dance, based in Western North Carolina, where they are dedicated to building a thriving dance community. As passionate cross-genre collaborators, they cultivate the craft of storytelling through movement while incorporating work by local writers, filmmakers, and musicians. Stacy Wolfson and Curtis Eller, based in Durham, have devised a unique compositional approach combining movement, music, and lyrics to create a peculiar and compelling hybrid of dance and song.

$32

AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL: Footprints

Reynolds Industries Theater 125 Science Drive Bryan University Center, Durham, NC, United States

The Footprints program, which bridges ADF’s performance series and education programs, delivers an outstanding presentation of three ADF-commissioned world premieres, choreographed by renowned choreographers and performed with impeccable technique and infectious energy by ADF students. This year’s choreographers are David Dorfman, Dianne McIntyre, and Kate Weare. ADF School alum and former faculty member David Dorfman, who founded David Dorfman Dance in 1987 to create politically and socially relevant work, is known for his movement-based dance theater. Dianne McIntyre, the 2008 recipient of the American Dance Festival Balasaraswati/Joy Anne Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching, is hailed as an artistic pioneer whose individualistic movement style reflects her affinity for cultural histories, personal narratives, and the boldness, nuances, discipline, and freedom in live music and poetic text. Kate Weare, known for her startling combination of formal choreographic value and visceral, emotional interpretation, charts a contemporary view of humanism by placing women at the center of the human story amidst the violence, sensuality, and yearning for intimacy that marks our age.

$30 – $45

AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL: Footprints

Reynolds Industries Theater 125 Science Drive Bryan University Center, Durham, NC, United States

The Footprints program, which bridges ADF’s performance series and education programs, delivers an outstanding presentation of three ADF-commissioned world premieres, choreographed by renowned choreographers and performed with impeccable technique and infectious energy by ADF students. This year’s choreographers are David Dorfman, Dianne McIntyre, and Kate Weare. ADF School alum and former faculty member David Dorfman, who founded David Dorfman Dance in 1987 to create politically and socially relevant work, is known for his movement-based dance theater. Dianne McIntyre, the 2008 recipient of the American Dance Festival Balasaraswati/Joy Anne Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching, is hailed as an artistic pioneer whose individualistic movement style reflects her affinity for cultural histories, personal narratives, and the boldness, nuances, discipline, and freedom in live music and poetic text. Kate Weare, known for her startling combination of formal choreographic value and visceral, emotional interpretation, charts a contemporary view of humanism by placing women at the center of the human story amidst the violence, sensuality, and yearning for intimacy that marks our age.

$30 – $45

AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL: Urban Bush Women

Reynolds Industries Theater 125 Science Drive Bryan University Center, Durham, NC, United States

Set in a fictional jazz club, SCAT!… The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar is a dance-driven musical that tells the love story of two people making their way during the Great Migration. It is a powerful tale of one family and what happens when dreams encounter the realities of American life in the ‘40s and ‘50s. The work features an original jazz score performed by a live band. Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, who created, choreographed, and directed SCAT!… The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar, says, “It is my story. It is my family’s story. It is a personal and collective story of a family and a people, moving from the Jim Crow South during the Great Migration.”

$35 – $54

AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL: Urban Bush Women

Reynolds Industries Theater 125 Science Drive Bryan University Center, Durham, NC, United States

Set in a fictional jazz club, SCAT!… The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar is a dance-driven musical that tells the love story of two people making their way during the Great Migration. It is a powerful tale of one family and what happens when dreams encounter the realities of American life in the ‘40s and ‘50s. The work features an original jazz score performed by a live band. Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, who created, choreographed, and directed SCAT!… The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar, says, “It is my story. It is my family’s story. It is a personal and collective story of a family and a people, moving from the Jim Crow South during the Great Migration.”

$35 – $54

AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL: Radical System Art

Reynolds Industries Theater 125 Science Drive Bryan University Center, Durham, NC, United States

Choreographer and Radical System Art’s artistic director Shay Kuebler’s MOI-Momentum of Isolation is based on social isolation and loneliness, exploring objective and subjective experiences through the individual, the group, and modern society—a society with shifting values and an ever-advancing digital way of life. MOI places live interactive video and sound around the performers to shape a digital world on stage. These elements enhance ideas on how technology influences our lives and can empower and disempower us. Further distilling isolation, solo performances and the extended social isolation of one character on stage are critical to the arc of the performance. Within MOI, one character’s interactions are only with inanimate objects. The inanimate world comes to life through puppeteering and stagecraft, highlighting how social isolation can disrupt our connection to reality. Our social bonds allow us to understand that we impact what is around us and that we exist.

$30 – $45

AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL: Radical System Art

Reynolds Industries Theater 125 Science Drive Bryan University Center, Durham, NC, United States

Choreographer and Radical System Art’s artistic director Shay Kuebler’s MOI-Momentum of Isolation is based on social isolation and loneliness, exploring objective and subjective experiences through the individual, the group, and modern society—a society with shifting values and an ever-advancing digital way of life. MOI places live interactive video and sound around the performers to shape a digital world on stage. These elements enhance ideas on how technology influences our lives and can empower and disempower us. Further distilling isolation, solo performances and the extended social isolation of one character on stage are critical to the arc of the performance. Within MOI, one character’s interactions are only with inanimate objects. The inanimate world comes to life through puppeteering and stagecraft, highlighting how social isolation can disrupt our connection to reality. Our social bonds allow us to understand that we impact what is around us and that we exist.

$30 – $45