Choreographers Festival 2008

In 2008, Contemporary Dance Theater expands its annual Choreographers Without Companies (CWC) concert into a veritable festival of modern dance. A departure from the annual CWC, which traditionally presented one concert of new work by independent Tri-State choreographers (those without companies), the Festival's two distinct concerts feature reprises of older dances alongside new work. Also included are dances by choreographers who have companies as well as those who don't, and work by artists who have danced in Cincinnati but may no longer live in the area. The festival is a fitting celebration of CDT's 35 years of nurturing modern dance and modern dancers.

The Festival will present 13 works over two weekends. Included in the program is work by exciting newcomers to Cincinnati, Ka-Ron Brown Lehman and Jeanne S. Mam-Luft, both of whom have made a mark on the Cincinnati dance community in less than a year's time. A sort of CDT reunion, the Festival includes choreographers who once called Cincinnati home but who moved elsewhere. Jan Van Dyke, Shawn Womack, Jacqueline Garcia, Paige Cunningham and Whitney Jacobs are coming back for the concert. Established Cincinnati favorites Fanchon Shur (with Karen Wissel) and Susan Moser have created new work for the concert, while Diane Germaine, Judith Mikita, Jeri Gatch and Tricia Gelmini remake some of their best work from past performances.

Choreographers Festival Program One
June 6 & 7, 2008, 7:30 pm

Paige Cunningham
The talented young dancer from Cincinnati moved on after graduating from SCPA and now teaches at the Dance Center of Columbia College, Chicago. She wowed audiences with her performance at Choreographers Without Companies 2006 and returns with a new work.

	Jeri Gatch Jeri Gatch reprises her 2004 work, Peloton, an exuberant and rollicking look at the culture of elite bicycle racing. A dance for seven dancers and six cyclists, Peloton explores ways that cyclists communicate, the pathways of riders in a
pack, the camaraderie of a team, and a sheer delight in motion shared by cyclists and dancers alike

Fanchon Shur & Karen Wissel Primordial Round is a kinesthetic and instrumental fusion of extreme passion. The spiraling vine meets the breaking branch. Kol Nidrei, the ancient melody sung on the Day of Atonement (here composed for solo viola) is filled with tensions and releases mirroring our encounter with our destiny.

Jan Van Dyke Currently Chair of the Department of Dance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, director of the Jan Van Dyke Dance Group, and producer NC Dance Festival, Jan Van Dyke returns to Cincinnati to perform Spike. The quartet was commissioned in 1982 by Contemporary Dance Theater, which performed the quartet for over fifteen years, citing it as their "signature piece." Martha dances Spike, by Jan Van Dyke

Choreographers Festival Program Two
June 13 & 14, 2008, 7:30 pm

Jacqueline Garcia Returning to Cincinnati for this concert, Albuquerque, NM, native Jacqueline Garcia presents Faceless/Full of Grace. A trio of dancers explores the use of masks as a way to reveal one’s inner truths, insecurities, traumas, and hidden secrets.

Diane Germaine
Accomplished choreographer and writer Diane Germaine, the former Artistic Director of Diane Germaine & Dancers in New York City among many other achievements, presents a three-part work for seven people. Fated Tango is about excess and desire, set to tango music by Astor Piazzolla.

Whitney Jacobs
Ohio University graduate Whitney Jacobs, who recently moved to Harlem to pursue a dance career, presents a new work which fuses Hip-Hop and modern dance movements into an explosive and athletic dance experience with New York style.

Ka-Ron Brown Lehman
Award-winning choreographer, dancer and teacher Ka-Ron Brown Lehman recently moved to Cincinnati from Los Angeles. She presents a work entitled Recurring Dreams, in which series of jarring dreams, force a young girl to take a peak into her emotional night journey.