Thirty years ago, the American Dance Festival came to North Carolina and started calling Duke University its home. On June 7, that partnership begins again with another summer of dancing instruction and more than 60 performances.
The regulars -- Pilobolus, Paul Taylor -- are back, but again there's a strong international flavor to the performances. July 5-7, the ADF will hold an Argentine Festival to highlight the deep inroads modern dance has made into that country's culture. The festival will showcase five works from some of Argentina's most heralded young dance artists. A second festival within the festival will showcase works from Russia.
Bring the Children
The ADF offers three special matinees designed for children to learn about and experience modern dance. Tickets for the children's matinees are $12. A subscription series ticket for all three matinees costs $30. All matinees are in Page Auditorium.
Pilobolus Children's Matinee, June 23 at 1 pm
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Children's Matinee, June 30 at 1 pm
Mark Morris Dance Group Children's Matinee, July 21 at 1 pm
Kids Night Out
With the purchase of an adult ticket to any ADF evening performance, you can bring a child or young adult, ages 6 -- 16, for free. In order to provide an affordable way to introduce young people to a more complete range of modern dance, Kids Night Out (KNO) will include all season performances in 2007. A limited number of KNO tickets will be available for each performing company. As some programs may contain adult themes or nudity, the purchase of KNO tickets is left to the discretion of parents or guardians.
"From the moment the ADF moved to Durham, it was received with great enthusiasm by its new public," said Festival Director Charles L. Reinhart. "Three decades later, the reaction is the same. To say thank you, we have planned an especially packed 30th anniversary summer for 2007 and are working on big plans to celebrate our 75th anniversary in 2008."
While ensuring its prominence at the dance frontier (ADF has been the site of 585 premieres, 312 of which were commissioned by the Festival),
ADF simultaneously continues its commitment to the preservation of classic modern dance. The Festival's 2007 contribution includes the fi rst peek at the re-envisioned update of Martha Clarke's 1984 dance theater masterwork, the Hieronymus Bosch-inspired "Garden of Earthly Delights" (June 7 -- 9). The 2007 cast for the dance includes
"Movin' Out" star Elizabeth Parkinson, former Mark Morris dancer Marjorie Folkman and former Tharp! performer Andrew Robinson, among others. "Sky Light," Laura Dean's 1982 movement, staged for ADF by Rodger Belman, will be accompanied by live music. One of the fi rst celebrants of the Black tradition in modern dance, ADF has played a major role in rescuing endangered works by African American artists. This summer Dianne McIntyre will oversee the staging of Helen Tamiris's "How
Long Brethren?" choreographed in 1937. Although a white artist, Tamiris is well known for her dances of social protest set to Negro spirituals. The Perez premiere, plus the Dean and Tamiris works are part of the Festival's Past/Forward program, and will be performed by a select group of ADF dancers.
RUSSIAN FESTIVAL: Five U.S. premieres presented by three contemporary Russian dance companies will explore the way which contemporary Russian choreographers see their rapidly changing country and its people. Making its U.S. debut, the 15-year-old Chelyabinsk Contemporary Dance Theater, directed by Vladimir and Olga Pona and based in Chelyabinsk (situated on the Asian side of the Ural Mountains), will present three premieres: "The Other Side of the River," "Nostalgia" and "Waiting" (June 14 -- 16). Vladimir Golubev, who danced with Chelyabinsk for nine years, will make his U.S. debut with his own solo work, "Not Unsteady Support," in a program shared with the Iguan Dance Theatre (June 17 -- 19). Iguan grew out of a combined dance performance in 1995 by Michail Ivanov and Nina Gasteva at Tam-Tam, St. Petersburg's celebrated nightclub for avant garde music.
ARGENTINE FESTIVAL: To celebrate Argentina's increasing importance on the international modern dance scene, ADF will present four U.S. premieres by some of Argentina's most heralded young dance artists including Edgardo Mercado, Gabriela Prado and Fabián Gandini. Susana Tambutti, one of Argentina's leading modern dance choreographers, will present her well-received solo "The Stab," performed by Luciana
Acuña, in a program shared with Edgardo Mercado, who makes his U.S. choreographic debut with "Plano Difuso," a solo for dancer Pablo Castronovo (July 8 -- 10). The dance uses an original score by Gabriel Gendlin. The U.S. premiere of Gabriela Prado's and
Eugenia Estévez's collaboratively created "Llueve" will be performed by Prado, Estévez and Luis Oscar Biasotto (July 8 -- 10). A wildly imaginative collective comprised of dancers, actors, choreographers and musicians, Krapp (pictured left, named after Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape") will present the U.S. premiere of a new work that explores the complexities of success (July 5 -- 7). For its U.S. debut, Compañía Contenido Bruto presents the premiere of "Kevental," set to original music by Silvina Gandini and Claudio Garbolino (July 5 -- 7).
For the complete schedule, click here.
To order tickets, click here.
To read the News & Observer's multimedia preview of the ADF season, click here.