Events - Joan Green

Event: Three Here Now
Artists: Joan Green (and other dancers)

Place & Time:
Julie Ince Thompson Theater at the Dance Complex
536 Mass. Avenue, Central Square, Cambridge.

Saturday, May 31, 8:00pm
Sunday, June 1, 7:00pm
Tickets: $18, $15 seniors, students, BDA members
Reservations: 617-492-8994
Advance Reservations Strongly Recommended

Melody Ruffin Ward was the single recipient of the 2007 Choreographers Grant from the Rhode Island State Arts Council. She recently demonstrated her gorgeous, fluid style as a dancer in a solo she performed in ThisThat, curated by Danny McCusker. Debra Cash, in her review in the Phoenix, described it this way: "In City of Heaven, Melody Ruffin Ward stood at bass-baritone Frank Ward's shoulder as he sang about the burdens of a pilgrim of sorrow. Persistently, her back to the audience, she reached out and up. When she fell into a sudden lateral balance that brought her ear to the floor, it was as if she were listening to the heartbeat of the Earth. Never merely illustrative, their unity seemed like the very source of Heaven." Of the work she will show in this concert Ward says: "I have always been interested in memory and identity - particularly how individuals come to construct their own identities and how race identity and the perception of race weaves and maps itself into all of that. I have continued making dances that explore the nature of displacement, marginalization, and finding beauty in one's history". The three pieces that I call verses are a part of an evening length work -  Some More Thoughts About Remembering...

Joan Green will reprise a pair of dances she premiered in June 2007 in two sold-out shows at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, that accompanied a solo exhibit of her paintings of dancers. A Closer Walk, a duet for Ann Allen and Andy Taylor-Blenis is a delightful romp that gives the audience an opportunity to peer inside the dance relationship of two veteran performers, a partnering of great depth and humor. Branch brings together seven women, ages eight to 85.  Green says: "Branch is grounded in children's culture – the group games that dominated my childhood, pointing out the power and beauty in those ordinary moments". It is set to an original commissioned score of Polish children's songs. Green will also present Membrane – a work in progress, a costume-driven trio for Ann Allen, Jen Schoonover and Andy Taylor-Blenis that explores themes of isolation, and connection.

Lise Brody's Dances About Witches was inspired by The Malleus Maleficarum, a 16th century treatise by two monks of the Inquisition.  The piece incorporates passages from the Malleus with original text and excerpts from The Tempest, and includes a live appearance by Shakespeare's most powerful witch, Sycorax herself. Quartet for Ann, Adrienne, Eleanor and Katrina is a new piece choreographed in response to the 4th movement of Peter Schickele's wonderful and mind-boggling Quartet for Clarinet (in A), Violin, Violoncello, and Piano.