Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Tap - Dance
Sat 4 Dec 2010
2010
December 2010
Saturday 4 December 2010
Sat 4 Dec, 4 pm. 19 Clarendon Street, Boston, 02116-6100. 617-456-6295. Boston Dance Alliance - [email][events]
out in front (a little to the left) Featuring Tufts Dance Ensemble At Jackson Dance Lab (50 Talbot Ave. Medford, MA) Saturday, December 04 4:00 pm Sunday, December 05 7:00 pm On December 4th and 5th, the Tufts Dance Ensemble will present “out in front (a little to the left)" a dance performance project developed collaboratively with students under the direction of choreographer and Senior Lecturer Daniel McCusker.
The title references two facets of Thoreau studies: ideas expressed in his writing and living, and also the distortions of his reputation that influence us strongly in the present. The performers have sourced material from the recently concluded Tufts gallery installation by J. Morgan Pruett and Mark Dion, “Renovating Walden.” Some material was actually developed in the tight confines of the installation, reminiscent of the very small space in Thoreau’s cabin. The dancers' own written descriptions and sketches in response to the installation as well as words culled by McCusker from Thoreau’s “Walden” have inspired individual movement phrases. These materials have been juxtaposed and combined to result in unexpected design possibilities. In the process of making a performance, the Tufts Dance Ensemble experience challenges dancers to move out beyond the familiar and to develop creative collaborations. They make dance material grounded in words, writing, thinking, images and other sources that might be new to them. The final performance also challenges viewers to expand beyond preconceived ideas of dance as simple entertainment and of stylized competitive activity.