Fantastic danceTactics

Keith Thompson and his New York-based danceTactics Performance Group are spending nearly a month on campus this fall, bringing a new style of dance and a taste of the professional life to Duke students.

Their work will culminate in two performances Nov. 17 and 18 showcasing student and professional dancers and featuring original music by a Duke graduate student. Performances are at 8 p.m. Nov. 17 and 3 p.m. Nov. 18 at Reynolds Theater in the Bryan Center. Tickets are available through the University Box Office.

During danceTactics' residency, students have observed the dedication required for six-hour rehearsals, "the blood, sweat and tears that go into every work," Thompson says. They've also talked with company members about "life as a dancer, life in New York, life in general."

"You can still have your dreams come true," Thompson tells aspiring dancers. "You just have to look at avenues other than the fairy tale of moving to New York and making it big. You have to really want it."

A $42,000 artist-in-residence grant made it possible for Barbara Dickinson, director of Duke's dance program, to bring Thompson's entire company to Duke. The Dance Program was one of the first recipients of the newly created grants, which the Office of the Provost funds. Thompson has been coming this fall for a series of visits, which totaled about a month on campus.

"The hope for these grants is that they won't only give the artists a date to perform," Dickinson says, "but that might further something about their company. It's sort of a luxury to have time and to have the company all together to create."

Dickinson sought out a company versed in a style of movement different from the styles of modern dance taught at Duke. To dance professionally, students must teach their bodies to move in a variety of movement styles.

Thompson, who danced internationally for the Trisha Brown Company, established the company in 2006. He and his dancers are adept at release technique, a flowing, directional way of shaping the body. The technique replaces the hard-edge finish of classic modern dance movements with a softness that belies the power dancers need to jump, fall to the floor and spring back up.

Here at Duke, Thompson also worked with Chia-Y Hsu, a graduate student in music composition, to create movement for a piece she composed. Duke's dance students will perform the new work at the November concert.

Thompson and his company also are teaching classes in the community and lead discussions about dance during their time in Durham.

Dance program faculty who observed Thompson teaching found his openness "challenging to the students but not terrifying," according to Dickinson, who said "it helps students become very versatile artists, communicating artists, if they have this kind of exposure."