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Newport Dance Festival Lineup Announced
Island Moving Company (IMC) welcomes five exceptional dance companies from around the globe in July
June 17, 2019 – NEWPORT, RI – Island Moving Company, Newport’s Contemporary Ballet will present its tenth annual summer dance festival July 14-21, 2019 on an outdoor stage on the gorgeous seaside lawn of St. Michael’s Country Day School in Newport, RI. The Newport Dance Festival (formerly known as Great Friends Dance Festival) will feature a unique lineup of dances each evening drawing on the talent, artistry, and individual styles of the festival’s five visiting dance companies, accompanied by Newport’s own Island Moving Company (IMC).
Picnics, blankets and lawn chairs are suggested to enjoy world class dance in a relaxed, community setting. Each performance will be preceded by live music and a 15-minute informational Q&A “Talk-Forward”, so guests are encouraged to arrive early.
Over the course of the eight-day Newport Dance Festival, visiting resident company Thomas/Ortiz Dance of New Canaan, Connecticut, will combine IMC and
Thomas/Ortiz Dance companies together to create a new work commissioned
for the festival, with choreography by its Artistic Director Ted Thomas. This
“Big Piece” will be presented to the public on Saturday, July 20 and
Sunday, July 21.
Other pieces presented by IMC at the festival will include works by Artistic Director Miki Ohlsen, Associate Artistic Director Danielle Genest, company dancer Glen Lewis and choreographers Rodney Rivera and Colin Connor.
Headlining the festival and performing each night with IMC is Thomas/Ortiz Dance from New Canaan, Connecticut. Ted Thomas and Frances Ortiz founded Thomas/Ortiz Dance in 2001, melding his urban athleticism with her Latin sensuality, and their combined choreographic and musical sensibilities. The company of twelve dancers from culturally diverse backgrounds performs a repertoire, which explores a
multitude of thought-provoking and socially-relevant themes.
Additional dance companies in the 2019 lineup include the Breathing Art Company of Bari, Italy. Directed by Simona De Tullio, the Breathing Art Company has presented
its work in Germany, Spain, Hungary, Albania, and Puerto Rico with a mission to
give young talent an opportunity to explore the art of dance. De Tullio has
directed the international San Nicola Dance Prize since 2010, and is influenced
in part by her work with American contemporary ballet legend Alonzo King.
Ballet Dallas, under the direction of Carter Alexander, will also be joining the mix. This Texas-based dance company seeks to collaborate with innovative choreographers to create new dance. Their mission is to use the language of ballet and contemporary dance and music to present ballet as a progressive and innovative art form.
Matthew Westerby Company of New York, NY will contribute with their unique mission motivated to create projects that foster community, building works that are accessible to all as participants and audience. Westerby’s choreographic approach is inclusive yet challenging by nature, asking each performer for unique contributions to the
process, insuring the work has the imprint of each participant.
Trainor Dance, founded by Caitlin Trainor, will be adding to the festival with their robustly physical, interdisciplinary work. The company has a supple structure, with an ever-growing repertoire that canvasses concert dance, sight specific work, and audience interactive performances. Trainor’s choreography consistently maintains a commitment to highly musical, visually stimulating work with a social conscience.
Donna Salgado’s CONTINUUM Contemporary/Ballet of New York, NY will return this year with their classically-trained dancers with contemporary artistic voices. The company aims to create work that plays in the concert dance spectrum while celebrating a spirit of dance-making that is inspiring, collaborative, and progressive.
In addition to the professional companies, dancers attending IMC’s pre-professional summer intensive perform each night of the festival. The intensive is a two-week
program for young dancers. Some of the students were selected from auditions
during a competition in Italy.
IMC’s Newport Dance Festival will begin each show with an Etude, a short piece that is choreographed by one of the festival choreographers during the day and performed with a group of self-selected festival dancers that same night.
The Newport Dance Festival was founded in 2010 by IMC to showcase new work and
artists from around the country. The festival brings visiting dance companies
to Newport each summer in July, with an exchange performance by IMC with the
resident dance company the following spring.
NEWPORT DANCE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
Doors open and live music
begins each night at 6:00pm.
Choreographer talk-forward
begins at 6:45pm.
Show begins at 7:00pm.
SUNDAY, JULY 14
(BANK NEWPORT NIGHT)
Caitlin Trainor Dance
Thomas/Ortiz Dance
Island Moving Company
MONDAY, JULY 15
Caitlin Trainor
Thomas/Ortiz
Island Moving Company
TUESDAY, JULY 16
CONTINUUM Contemporary/Ballet
Thomas/Ortiz Dance
Island Moving Company
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17
CONTINUUM Contemporary/Ballet
Thomas/Ortiz Dance
Island Moving Company
THURSDAY, JULY 18
Thomas/Ortiz Dance
Matthew Westerby Company
Island Moving Company
FRIDAY, JULY 19
Thomas/Ortiz Dance
Matthew Westerby Company
Breathing Art Company
Island Moving Company
SATURDAY, JULY 20
Ballet Dallas
CONTINUUM Contemporary Ballet
Thomas/Ortiz Dance
Matthew Westerby Company
Breathing Art Company
Island Moving Company
SUNDAY, JULY 21
Ballet Dallas
CONTINUUM Contemporary/Ballet
Thomas/Ortiz Dance
Island Moving Company
Tickets to performances are $30 with discounted ticket packages available online at islandmovingco.org, or over the phone at (401) 847-4470.
Nuit Blanche: Au Cinema – July 5, 2019
The annual Nuit Blanche summer gala for Island Moving Company will benefit the nonprofit organization’s professional dance company, pre-professional after-school dance training program, and in-school educational programs. Approximately 400 guests will enjoy this year’s “Nuit Blanche: Au Cinema” at Ronald Lee Fleming’s New York Times featured Bellevue House on July 5th.
Barbara Caldwell and Ellen Barnes are co-chairing the event to celebrate IMC’s 37th season under the direction of Artistic Director Miki Ohlsen. IMC dancers will perform throughout the gardens along with other artists for the first 90 minutes. Guests will then enter the beautifully appointed tent, enjoy open bar, savories by Russell Morin Catering & Events and dance the night away to tunes by the Original Moonlighters.
CONVERGENCE AT THE GAMM THEATRE
GAMM THEATRE TO HOST NEWPORT CONTEMPORARY BALLET COMPANY
(Newport, RI) – Island Moving Company announces Convergence, an evening of contemporary ballet featuring the restaging of Modern Dance legend Jose Limón’s 1958 masterpiece Mazurkas and the world premiere of commissioned works by Tina Kay Bohnstedt and Danielle Genest. Performances are scheduled for May 10 and 11 at 7:30pm at the newly renovated Gamm Theatre in Warwick, RI. Curated by Artistic Director Miki Ohlsen, Convergence is designed to showcase the company’s 12 nationally and internationally recruited dancers in an intimate 300 seat setting.
In a 2013 review describing Jose Limón’s Mazurkas, New York Times critic Gia Kourlas noted, “Its technical and unpretentious full-bodied movement is the draw.” Set to music by Chopin, Mazurkas was created to honor the spirit of the people of Poland after a visit the choreographer made to the country in 1957. The piece has been re-staged for local audiences by dance pioneer Sarah Stackhouse who came of age as a dancer in New York City during the 1960s. In 1958, she joined the José Limón Company, working also as Limón’s assistant at the Juilliard School. The choreographers and dancers with whom she worked and studied during this time include—in addition to Limón—Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Merce Cunningham, and the ballet great, Anthony Tudor. Limón’s Mazurkas is presented by IMC with support from the Kiven Family Foundation.
Convergence will include the premiere of guest choreographer Tina Kay Bohnstedt’s Voices Around the Table set to music by Rachmaninoff. Bohnstedt began her dance training at the Heinz-Bosl Stiftung Ballet Academy in Munich, Germany, and became a Principal Ballerina at the Bavarian State Ballet, Germany, and Diablo Ballet, California. Bohnstedt toured internationally to China, Italy, Korea, the Philippines, Poland, Belarus, Spain and Switzerland. She served as a Ballet Mistress with Houston Ballet, and currently trains aspiring dancers in Houston, TX.
The evening will also feature Evoked, a solo choreographed by IMC Associate Artistic Director Danielle Genest and premiered by IMC dancer Rhea Keller. Previously, Genest’s choreography has been commissioned by New York Theatre Ballet, Tallahassee Ballet, Festival Ballet Providence, Island Moving Company, Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance, Salve Regina University, and Texas A&M University. Keller’s dance credits include the Rochester City Ballet, Bellydance Evolution, Central Illinois Ballet.
Providence cellist Adrienne Taylor will perform live from the stage in accompaniment to Genest’s Night Vision, which was debuted at Newport’s Rosecliff Mansion in March 2019. In addition to IMC, Taylor’s collaborative credits include engagements with Kronos Quartet, the Sphinx Virtuosi and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. The evening’s live music is made possible with support from Dominique Alfandre & Thomas Palmer.
The program is completed with two additional pieces from the company’s repertory: La Tierra Giro commissioned by Joya Hoyt in 2015, and Kindred/two hearts 1952-1985 which debuted in 2018. Both are choreographed by IMC Artistic Director Miki Ohlsen.
Opportunities to underwrite the evening’s new works are available, and tickets are available at $49 or $69 online at www.IslandMovingCo.org or over the phone at (401)847-4470.
Friday May 10, 7:30pm
Saturday May 11, 7:30pm