Choreographers Festival 2008

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 presents 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.

Click HERE for artist biographies

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, Inside her own Square Box, co-created wtih Angela Fleddermann Miller.
Dancers: Heather Britt, Paige Cunningham, Angela Fleddermann Miller & Denise Posnak

	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. Dancers: Kristen Bickel, Jennifr Frank, Jeri Gatch, Ron Houck, Rachel James, Colleen McCarty & Kodee Lind VanNort Cyclists: Amdrew Allwein, John Gatch, Lewis Gatch, Lily Gatchy, Jeff McLane & Jerry Schultze

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. Dancers: Fanchon Shur & Karen Wissel

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." Dancers: Martha Dobbs, Tiffany Janeway, Kate Vincek, Renee Westervelt 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. Dancers: Jacqueline Garcia, Zoe Hunter, Eirinn Sanchez

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.
Dancers: Kristin Bickel, Heather Britt, Michelle Bump, Jason Hatcher, Ron Houck, Alena O'Donnell, Danielle Shoreman

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.
Dancers: Whitney Jacobs, Christopher Campbell

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. Dancer: Danielle Shoreman

Jeanne S. Mam-Luft
Jeanne S. Mam-Luft, fresh from Dallas, TX, recently re-formed MamLuft&Co Dance in Cincinnati. The company of five dancers presents a new work in which performers find themselves pivoting between childhood and womanhood, resisting and desisting maternity, domesticity, and life transmuted.
Dancers: Jacquelyn Corcoran, Rachel James, Kira Kelley, Julie Mullins, Ashley Powell

Susan Moser
Choreographer-composer and writer Susan Moser presents Vernal Muses, a celebration of our body's primal relationship to the first whisper of spring. Through spring’s wild beauty, chaotic wind and playful mystery, we renew our vows with Mother Nature.
Dancers: Susan Moser, Kevin Bell, Michael Carr, Ben Cramer, Johnny Dotson, Vickie Fairchild, Ashley Goos, Jason Howard, Steve Kreimer, Flora Leptak-Moreau, Kevin Macku, Mikayla Stanley, James Turvey, Kodee Van Nort, Savannah Weatherington

Shawn Womack
The former director of Shawn Womack Dance Projects, a Cincinnati-based contemporary dance and performance company, returns to Cincinnati to present Pageant, a work which is both a romp and a mournful rumination on aging beauty queens.
Dancers: Shawn Womack, Deborah Breuleux, Shellie Cash, Renee McCafferty

Tickets to Contemporary Dance Theater's Choreographers Festival 2008 are $27 & $22; $17 students & seniors; $12 ETA/Start and may be purchased at the Aronoff Center Ticket Office at (513) 621-2787 or on-line at cincinnatiarts.org

Contemporary Dance Theater receives season support from

CELEBRATING 35 YEARS!

Contemporary Dance Theater was founded in 1972 by Jefferson James and remains the only arts organization in the Tri-State dedicated to promoting and presenting contemporary dance. CDT operates a dance studio and performance space in the historic College Hill Town Hall, 1805 Larch Avenue, Cincinnati, 45224. For more information call (513) 591-1222 or visit www.cdt-dance.org.