This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
Dancer-choreographer Catherine Messina recently spoke with ArtsATL and explained why, with the Fall for Fall festival, she has expanded her own artistic mission to include supporting the work of other Atlanta-based dance and movement artists.
“It’s about creating more opportunities for people to make dance in Atlanta and more opportunities for people to see dance in Atlanta,” she said. “So many people have said to me: If Fall for Fall didn’t exist, this piece wouldn’t have happened.”
Messina described the upcoming fourth iteration of Fall for Fall, which features work by 36 choreographers, as a citywide community event. “You’ll see a lot of different works encompassing every kind of dance you can think of,” she said. “Every lineup is different.”
The festival will take place Friday and Saturday. In order to reach a broad audience and activate different spaces, the Friday evening show will take place at the B Complex, and Saturday’s three shows will be in the parking lot of the Ormewood Church.
Credit: Courtesy of Catherine Messina
Credit: Courtesy of Catherine Messina
Artist profiles released so far on the Fall for Fall Instagram account offer tantalizing descriptions of work inspired by literature, the otherworldly grace of the octopus, folk dance, folk tales and mythic narratives, 125 years of Philippine independence and house music culture.
Messina said audiences can expect to see the influence of ballet, traditional styles, street and social dance and familiar modern dance greats such as Lester Horton and Martha Graham.
For the second year, Messina is bringing in an artist in residence from New York to create work with Atlanta dancers. The festival will showcase the resulting piece in every performance. Last year’s contribution, Jordan Ryder’s “Garage,” was a program highlight.
The festival awarded this year’s residency to Dahyun Kim. She frequently draws on her Korean heritage for thematic elements, and her dance vocabulary encompasses a wide range of aesthetic and cultural forms. Like “Garage,” Kim’s work will be a larger ensemble piece for eight to 10 dancers.
Credit: Addison Rudicile
Credit: Addison Rudicile
Messina launched the festival as a DIY, outdoor performance opportunity during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. The success of the first show, combined with her experience of moving to New York and starting her own company, motivated her to continue the festival as an annual event, along with a companion festival, Spring for Spring, which currently takes place in Metuchen, New Jersey.
Messina notes that Atlanta has a number of competitive, juried shows for emerging choreographers — Dance Canvas, MAD Fest, Excuse the Art, Moving Bodies/Moving Hearts/Moving Minds — but said that building a robust pipeline for homegrown dance in Atlanta requires something more: presentation opportunities for choreographers whose work might not be ready for those forums. “As artists, to practice their art, dancers need to perform and choreographers need to show their work.”
Applications more than doubled from last year, so Messina had to break with her past practice and decline some artists. Fall for Fall remains a relatively accessible local festival with no application fee, however.
Andre D. Lumpkin, one of this year’s participants, said the festival provides space to test out new ideas, build upon previous work or sometimes both at once. “Body Talk,” his Fall for Fall contribution and the first piece he choreographed for professional dancers, was originally created for Dance Canvas in the spring.
Watching that piece in Dance Canvas, Lumpkin saw resilience emerging as an implicit but unrealized theme within the work’s celebration of house music and the way Black and queer communities have embraced and shaped it.
“The version I created for Fall for Fall explores resilience more intentionally,” he said. “The festival’s audience is a diverse crowd. Your work gets seen by a new, unique set of eyes. You meet artists you wouldn’t normally encounter, and they bring their audiences with them.”
That diversity motivates dancer/choreographer Emma Morris to return to the festival each year. Morris, who is in her seventh season with contemporary dance ensemble Kit Modus, will debut a new piece on the 2 p.m. Saturday program and also dance in Kim’s world premiere. She said she loves this festival because it “activates so many artists, and it’s a great way to get people watching dance. It’s a really easy sell. Outside? Multiple time slots? A more casual seating arrangement that doesn’t make you feel trapped? This event has all of these.”
This year, Messina is inviting the audience from Friday evening’s show to an afterparty at the B Complex, Fall for Fall Under the Stars, to enjoy “drinks, merriment and music” and raise funds to purchase a portable sprung dance floor, an important piece of equipment when dancers perform in outdoor spaces. Fall for Fall operates without any public or private philanthropy.
Messina has expanded the festival’s reach and impact every year. She has applied for grants and says she has gotten good feedback, mostly with suggestions to apply again when Fall for Fall has been around for five years. For the time being, she is using the income from ticket sales and donations to pay all the participating artists.
In its short history, Fall for Fall has become a launching ground for local companies as well as choreographers. ALA Dance (2020), Uprising Dance Company (2021), Profectus Dance (2020) and SOMOS Dance (2022) first came together and debuted at the festival. Beginning with last year’s festival, the choreographer who receives recognition as “Director’s Choice” is included among the Decatur School of Ballet’s Meli Kaye professional artists-in-residence each spring.
EVENT PREVIEW
Fall for Fall
6 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m., 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday. $13-$16 per performance. Friday’s performance at B Complex, 1272 Murphy Ave. SW, Atlanta. Saturday’s performances at Ormewood Church parking lot, 1071 Delaware Ave. SE, Atlanta. eventbrite.com/e/2023-fall-for-fall-dance-festival-tickets-706304875897.
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Robin Wharton studied dance at the School of American Ballet and the Pacific Northwest Ballet School. As an undergraduate at Tulane University in New Orleans, she was a member of the Newcomb Dance Company. In addition to a bachelor of arts in English from Tulane, Robin holds a law degree and a Ph.D. in English, both from the University of Georgia.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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ArtsATL (www.artsatl.org), is a nonprofit organization that plays a critical role in educating and informing audiences about metro Atlanta’s arts and culture. Founded in 2009, ArtsATL’s goal is to help build a sustainable arts community contributing to the economic and cultural health of the city.If you have any questions about this partnership or others, please contact Senior Manager of Partnerships Nicole Williams at nicole.williams@ajc.com.
