NEW WORKS NOVEMBER 5, 6*, 12 & 13*, 2020 DEEP SLEEP (WORLD PREMIERE)
Choreography, Concept, and Visual Treatment by: Saleemah E. Knight Music: Watermark by DJ Rum Production and Direction by: Saleemah E. Knight Rehearsal Manager: Jennifer Mc Quiston Lott Student Rehearsal Assistant: Isabella Caso Edited by: Adam Agostino Costume Design: Saleemah E. Knight and Spencer Saccoman Eli Alford, Ciara Billups, Emily Carr, Isabella Caso, Luke Csordas, India Dobbie, Anijah Lezama, Benjamin Peralta, Anthony Tette
About Deep Sleep
"Deep Sleep" is a new Contemporary Jazz work originally created for live performance and readapted for the screen upon the Covid-19 pandemic. Knight's choreographies comment on the use of Africanist aesthetics such as polycentrism, youthful attack and polyrhythmic interpretation, juxtaposed the postures of European-based forms that traditionally prioritize "line," verticality, and linearity in movement. The choreography asks the dancers to explore contemporary ideas in Jazz Dance in direct conversation with the multi-intelligence of Black Dance practices that are abundant within Contemporary Dance, yet often viewed as separate from the Contemporary Dance idiom. The work's narrative explores the stages of sleep from non-Rem to Rem, and dream state to "awake state", by drawing on notions of relaxation, anxiety, insomnia, paralysis, and lethargy. The piece uses the element of water to comment on the body's ability to potentially experience all phases amidst a lucid dreamwhere the body is submerged in water. Parallel to the stages of sleep, the water is also assumed to move through various phases throughout the piece, from calm to turbulent, causing the body to react in a multitude of ways resulting in the performed composition.
... AND HERE WE ARE. (WORLD PREMIERE)
Direction, Choreography, and Editing by: Hope Boykin Original Text by: Hope Boykin in collaboration with the Dancers Narrated by: Hope Boykin, Aimee Brotten, Valerie Chen, Isaiah Franklin, Ryan Phuong, Jada Vaughan Ashton Benn, Aimee Brotten, Marcel Cavaliere, Valerie Chen, Jasmine Cruz, Jonathan Cubides, Nicole Denney, Atticus Dobbie, Isaiah Franklin, Jau'mair Garland, Paige Litle, Diego Lopez, Jonacy Montero, William Okajima, Hope Patterson, Amanda Peet, Chase Peterson, Ryan Phuong, Hayden Rivas, Ava Sine, Anja Tempel, Jada Vaughan, Kaylin Williams, Louie Williams
About ... and here WE are.
... and here WE are. is a deep dive into the true feelings of the newest members of USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. This class is brave, fearless, and hungry for knowledge. Without knowing what tomorrow will bring, they tackle their emotions, mixed confusion, and doubt in full transparency. During the most difficult of circumstances, we learn how they are doing, what they are feeling, and how they expect to overcome. USC Kaufman Artists in Residence are supported in part through generous funding from The Choi Family Artists in Residence Fund.
WHAT DO YOU DANCE? (WORLD PREMIERE)
Choreography: E. Moncell Durden in collaboration with the Dancers Music: Taratnella by Carmelo Pansero; Finale from The Blue Pearl, Op. 160 by Erkki Melartin; Celloppa by The Piano Guys; Flamenco Guitar by Spanish Guitar ; Allons Danser Colinda by Lee Benoit; Big Spender by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields; Nuh Ready Nuh Ready by Calvin Harris (featuring PARTYNEXTDOOR); Salsoul Hustle by The SalSoul Orchestra Edited by: Justin Epstein Lauren Brophy, Stefano Gallelli, Colin Heino, AJ Joehl, Ava Noble, Syera Plitt, Emma Sutherland, Jada Walker, Jessalyn Ward, Brodie Wolf