Contemporary Dance Showcase Kicks Off This Sunday

Getting back to basics, Vox Dance Theatre, in association with The Colburn School, is presenting the first in a series of monthly dinnertime performances this Sunday in the dance studio at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center.Highlighting dances without the bells and whistles that future productions may include, these no-frills (and affordable) events reveal some of the work being done under the radar in the nooks and crannies of our wide city. Presenting choreography created by local emerging and established dancemakers, the shows have more meat on the bones than an open rehearsal and they uncover some of the intelligence and craft involved in movement art making.

This first installment aligns Keith Glassman, Donna Sternberg and Deborah Rosen and, though all three hail from a shared cultural background, only Ms. Rosen has chosen to address this history in Tashlich. The choreographer says the piece is inspired by the Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah, and the "casting away [of] one's sins." Hmmm... sins... we like that, don't we?

Promotional materials describe Glassman's Coffeehouse Dances as being incited by events that have occurred in cafes across the globe—Middle Eastern terrorism, Parisian new wave film and our very own beatniks, back in the day.

And, Ms. Sternberg’s The Flowering of Desire is part of multiyear project that examines desire through the prism of plant biology. A continuation of the artist’s interest in the intersection of dance and science, she says she’s “using science as a framework to give shape and structure to our artistic explorations and interpretations.”

And all this with free street parking on Sundays!

Check out the below clips and stop by the JACCC to see what it all means.

Deborah Rosen

Keith Glassman