Persistence, tenacity and some inspired surprises drove the Atlanta dance scene forward in 2013.
Atlanta Ballet furthered its plan to shape a distinct profile with a spring season packed with visceral dazzlers and a trip to Beijing, its first major international tour in 14 years.
Last year's Robert Rauschenberg Foundation SEED grants helped The Lucky Penny presenting organization and gloATL performance group launch some innovative dance projects. Former New York City Ballet principal dancer Alexandre Proia became artistic director of The Georgia Ballet.
Seeking new ways to interact with audiences, dancers crossed the footlights, engaged all of the senses and offered glimpses into backstage life. Here are a few highlights.
“New Choreographic Voices”
Atlanta Ballet ventured further into contemporary dance with a triple bill last March, featuring Ohad Naharin’s “Minus 16.” The first of three works by the Tel Aviv-based choreographer to enter company repertoire, “Minus 16” was more aggressive than the spine-chilling “Dracula” in February and less polite than the provocative “Carmina Burana” in April. Dancers brought about a dozen audience members onstage for an extended, partly improvised dance that shook them out of their comfort zones, with responses ranging from embarrassment to exhilaration.
“Hippodrome”
Aromas of fresh flowers and campfires wafted through Goodson Yard last spring during this multi-sensory collaborative work that served as centerpiece for the Goat Farm Arts Center's first Tanz Farm performance series. Directed and choreographed by Lauri Stallings and performed by gloATL, the work welcomed audiences into an arena-like structure bordered by flower beds. Sacred music by Arvo Pärt filled an area saturated with richly hued light; audiences tasted sweet tinctures during this meditation on communal spaces as places for friendship, reflection and emotional release.
DanceAfrica Atlanta
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Giwayen Mata, Atlanta's "all-sistah" African dancing and drumming ensemble, threw a big party: the first four-day DanceAfrica Atlanta festival. Thundering drumbeats reverberated through Morehouse College's King Chapel one Saturday night in June. Chuck Davis, founder of DanceAfrica USA, led a call-and-response chant, inviting about 1,100 attendees to clap, sway and sing along with artists from about nine companies performing African music and dance. Performers ranged from tiny Djembe drummers to Davis, a towering elder at nearly 6 feet 6 inches tall, in an evening by turns jubilant, reverent and ecstatic.
“NoNet”
Atlanta has seen flashy and fantastical circuses, but none like “NoNet,” an intimate circus presented at the Goat Farm in November. Former Cirque du Soleil artist Meaghan Muller and nine cohorts, many of them friends from her Cirque years, shared sublime aerial feats and private moments as part of a backstage view of circus life.
“James Brown: Get on the Good Foot — A Celebration in Dance”
Seven years since James Brown’s funeral at New York’s Apollo Theater, choreographer and director Otis Sallid has orchestrated a dance tribute to the American music icon. Dance company Philadanco performed works by six choreographers from four continents, showing Brown’s worldwide influence. Dressed in gold suit and wig, tap artist Derick K. Grant was the spitting image of Brown. Grant’s quick-stepping, knee-shaking, arm-snaking dances captured Brown’s hard-hitting showmanship as the Rialto Center for the Arts’ capacity crowd rocked to Brown’s funky beat.
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