ADF and the NC Dance Festival (NCDF) are delighted to co-present four dance works featured in the NCDF’s annual state tour. Selected by a panel of nationally recognized choreographers including Camille A. Brown, David Dorfman, and Faye Driscoll, the works were chosen from among the top performances on the tour in the past ten years. John Gamble Dance Theater, Natalie Marrone and The Dance Cure, Cara Hagan, and Lindsey Kelley and Mindy Upin will make their ADF main stage debuts as we celebrate the work being created here at home.
John Gamble Dance Theater will present Changeant d’Habit de Sexe, a seductive dance set to cabaret melodies that explores the mystery and allure of film noir and cross-dressing culture. Inspired by the personal stories of Italian Americans and their experiences with folk healing traditions, Natalie Marrone and The Dance Cure’s heart-pounding work REVOLT fuses traditional music and images with contemporary dance styles to tell the stories of these historical healers. Words Apart (2009), choreographed by Cara Hagan in collaboration with The Storyline Project of Winston-Salem, is a dynamic and moving oral history project that is narrated by six women as they share their unique experiences with equality, grief, love, and life-long friendship. Set to the music of Queen, A Tribute and Reflection of the Relationship (2010) by Mindy Upin and Lindsey Kelley explores both the hardships and comedy of relationships through a beautiful balance of minute gestures and explosive movement.
About NCDF
The Festival is an annual production of the Dance Project, under the direction of Jan Van Dyke. Dance Project, Inc. is a non-profit organization that has been operating in North Carolina since 1989, coordinating the NC Dance Festival, directing the dance program at City Arts, and managing Artistic Director Jan Van Dyke’s current company, the Van Dyke Dance Group. The Festival establishes a network of venues for professional regional choreography and performance, expanding accessibility of dance throughout the state while raising the profile of North Carolina’s own artists. We strive to build the state’s dance community and create an open, supportive environment where ideas can be shared. The NC Dance Festival encourages the public in the arts, particularly in terms of building awareness and exposure to contemporary dance. For more information, please visit www.ncdancefestival.org.
About John Gamble
John Gamble has created over seventy dance works that have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. He has been presenting choreography in North Carolina since 1986. His company, John Gamble Dance Theater (JGDT), includes dancers, musicians, and actors and his productions are often evening length dance/plays that address political and social issues. His choreography tends to be theatrical and athletic. Gamble was the 1991 recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council choreographic fellowship and in 2006 he was selected for a UNC Board of Governor’s Teach Excellence Award, the University of North Carolina’s highest teaching award. In 2007 he received the North Carolina Dance Alliance Annual Award for outstanding contributions to dance in the state. Gamble is also the co-founder of the Greensboro Fringe Festival, which is in its eleventh season.
About Natalie Marrone
Natalie Marrone created The Dance Cure in Columbus, OH in 1998 to showcase her choreographic fusion of Italian folk traditions and contemporary dance. The company thrives on performing and teaching an accessible yet diverse body of dances that explore the many rites of passage woven through the fabric of human experience. Her choreography and research have been featured in national commercials, live television events and presented throughout the USA, Italy, and Taiwan. Ms. Marrone’s work has been awarded numerous city and state grants, choreographic fellowships, university level research support, and honored twice in the Columbus Dispatch’s “top ten” performances of the year. Her college consulting firm Dance Decisions designed to help young dancers find the right college dance program was featured in Dance Magazine’s 2008 College Guide. She has taught extensively including on faculty at Ballet Metropolitan, The Raleigh School of Ballet, The Ohio State University, Western Michigan University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Meredith College, Duke University, and Elon University.
About Cara Hagan
Cara Hagan shares her multi-dimensional work on stage, on screen and in educational settings throughout the United States and abroad. She is the 2009 recipient of the NC Dance Alliance Fellowship Award and was awarded Best Short Film and Best Dance For Camera at the Indie Grits Film Festival and the Foursite Film Festival respectively in 2010 for her film, Two Downtown. In 2011, she received a Graduate Scholar Award at the 6th annual Arts in Society Conference where she presented her workshop entitled, How Did I Get Here: an Exploration of the Web of Memory, Journey and Arrival. She is founder and facilitator for The Wedding Dress Project, an organization whose mission is to raise awareness and inspire dialogue around issues of domestic violence, gender relations and gender stereotypes. She is also founder and curator for Movies By Movers, an annual festival now in its third year, dedicated to the art of movement on film and digital media.
About Lindsey kelley and mindy upin
Lindsey Kelley, a native of the Florida panhandle, is a graduated from the University of South Florida with a B.F.A. in Dance Performance. Kelley has worked with Monica Bill Barnes, Seán Curran, Rebecca Davis, Yesid Lopez, Laura Peterson, Becky Radway, Oliver and Teri Steele, and Saul Ulerio, and was formerly a member of Contemporary Ballet Theatre, The Human Institution, Michiyo and Dancers, Naganuma Dance and STEPS of Broadway Repertory Ensemble. Her work has been presented at the American College Dance Festival, Goucher College, Meredith College, UNCAsheville, {Re}Happening , North Carolina Dance Festival, plus Food for Thought/Danspace Project, PMT Dance Festival, STEPS on Broadway and the Triskelion Arts Festival in NYC.
Mindy Upin has worked with numerous artists including Aszure Barton, Donald Byrd, Benoit Swan Pouffer, Larry Keigwin, Seán Curran, Monica Bill Barnes, Nathan Trice, Andrea Miller, Cherice Barton, Bill Young, Camille A. Brown, Mark Dendy, Zvi Gotheiner, Celia Rowlson-Hall, and Cape Town South Africa’s Ikapa Dance Theatre, among many others. Her choreography has been seen in New York, Illinois, Maryland, Tennessee, and North Carolina. She has been a guest teaching artist at New York’s Dance New Amsterdam, Peridance Capezio Center; Chelsea’s Hudson Guild for young children, Appalachian State University (NC), and currently teachers contemporary modern at Steps on Broadway and creative movement to children with special needs.