elephant JANE dance

Renowned dancer and dance maker Heidi Henderson brings her Rhode Island-based company to the area for a program of eclectic contemporary work set to music ranging from Franz Schubert to David Bowie and Justin Timberlake.

There is sadness and laughter. There is task, quiet exactitude mixed with big messy dancing.

Pieces in show:

*There will be a pre-show performance, featuring dancers from the community and the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School beginning at 7:20 on Saturday, and 6:20 on Sunday.

Pine
2010
This work juxtaposes an ultra-slow solo, danced mostly in place, with a wide ranging, spilling duet. The sustained separation of the solo from the duet creates longing. The solo is sad and alone. The duet ends with an extended hugging section. In this work, I am using pop music that, if I were following the dictates of choreography classes everywhere, including my own, I am not supposed to use. Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana is necessary noise that grounds the slow opening solo. The duet is danced in silence even though it is the kind of dancing that is usually done to music. A heartbreaking arrangement by Michael Wall of Oo, Baby I Love Your Way by Peter Frampton, leaving out the most stupid verse, is soft and yearning.

Pine has been performed at the Flynn Space, The Bates Dance Festival, Rochester Fringe Festival, and Connecticut College.

Imagine us in silver.
2009
Two women stand upstage at the end of lines of silver duct tape. We are dressed in 70s clothes that have been spray-painted silver. This is the closest to fabulous that we can get. We move in place, in unison, very slowly to David Bowies Life on Mars. We pace, gesture, crawl, and blink our eyes in time to Life on Mars, played a second time. We lip sync and dance wildly along the line, falling and leaping to Life on Mars, played a third time. The audience is asked to sing along. By the third time, everyone is singing loudly, perhaps badly, together. Everyone is surprised by, and deeply involved in, the repetition and in the mess of feeling things.

Imagine us in silver. has been performed at Rhode Island College, The Bates Dance Festival, Connecticut College, Keene State College, LIT Showcase at 100 Grand St in NYC, and The Flynn Space in Burlington, VT.

Judgy
A new solo, work-in-progress premiered 2017 Redfern Arts at Keene

Leslie
2015
In the beginning of Leslie, the movement is about continually processing particular delicate actions. The actions are non-hierarchical; each movement feels as important as the next. There is precision in the placement of each hand, each pause, in the tone of the body. The people in this dance are themselves but cautiously so. The work is reductive. There is no grandness. There is no message. The dancers play with time, going ahead and falling behind each other. The dancers pay attention to each other sideways, indirectly but acutely aware. By the end, and I have no idea how it makes sense that we get here, the dance has gained a quiet but persnickety attitude. We are ever so slightly pissed off. We are still contained but fabulous.

Leslie has been performed at Movement Research at the Judson, The Bates Dance Festival, Triskelion Presents, and the Rochester Fringe Festival.

• 
  Sponsored

  Lilac Sunday at the Arnold Arboretum

  Sunday, May 12, 2024 10:00a

  The Arnold Arboretum
• 
  Sponsored

  20+ Free Museums in Boston Including Free Museum Days

  Thursday, Apr 18, 2024 goes until 12/31

  Boston

Sesh by The Boston Calendar | Advertise Terms | Privacy Policy | About