BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Urbanity Dance, a Boston-based contemporary dance company, is hosting the second annual Boston Contemporary Dance Festival from August 16-17 at the Paramount Center in Boston. The Boston Contemporary Dance Festival draws a diverse array of contemporary dance artists from across the world. Tickets to the festival are available online via the Paramount Center box office or by calling 617.824.8400 for $20-$35. Premium seating is also available for $75.
This year, the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival received an outpouring of more than 100 applications. From this elite pool, Urbanity selected 35 contemporary companies and choreographers to present their work in the Boston Edition and National Showcase shows. Communities from Boston and beyond will have the opportunity to meet and mingle with industry-leading critics, producers, and photographers and explore contemporary dance as a means of social change and exchange during a series of panels and workshops.
On Friday, August 16, nationally renowned contemporary dance companies will offer free master classes to intermediate and advanced dancers, ages 14 and up, at the Paramount Center. Space in the workshops will be first come, first served. The Boston Contemporary Dance Festival will also offer panels on (1) the Boston arts ecosystem and (2) best business practices for dance directors and board members. Please check bostoncontemporarydance.org for the latest schedule.
On Saturday, August 17, a global array of choreographers and dancers will perform in the National Showcase shows at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., including Robert Moses’ Kin—known as one of “the most important art entities in the San Francisco Bay Area,” Gillmer Duran and the Alaskan Dance Theater, and ELSCO Dance, a modern dance company led by Ellenore Scott (So You Think You Can Dance, Smash). Boston area choreographers and dancers will perform in the Boston Edition show at 12 p.m. to recognize local contemporary dance talent.
“Last year's inaugural Boston Contemporary Dance Festival had 40 applicants and this year's response was an eye-opener with more than 100 applications received from dance companies from Boston to Alaska,” said Betsi Graves, artistic director at Urbanity Dance and founder of BCDF. “This unprecedented clamor to participate in an all-volunteer festival demonstrates the enormous need for dancers to have an opportunity to perform in a professional venue and reflects the draw of Boston as a groundbreaking center for ideas and the arts.”
For more information regarding the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, please visit bostoncontemporarydance.org or email info@bostoncontemporarydance.org.
About the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival
The Boston Contemporary Dance Festival draws a diverse array of contemporary dance artists from across the world to Boston. The festival aims to inspire and build a mighty contemporary dance community in the Boston area and beyond. Visit bostoncontemporarydance.org to learn more about the festival.
About Urbanity Dance
Urbanity Dance is a Boston-based contemporary dance company, celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2013. Its 30 company dancers hail from strong technical backgrounds, but flock to Urbanity because of its vitality, organized chaos, and raw dedication to the community. Our work is a product of cross-disciplinary collaboration with local musicians, fashion designers, and architects. We exist to inspire, engage, and empower individuals and communities through the art of dance and movement. The company has performed in venues across the United States, including Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires, the Dance Gallery Festival in Houston, and the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater in New York. In 2012, the Improper Bostonian named Urbanity Dance the Best Dance Company in their Best of Boston issue.
Boston Contemporary Dance Festival
August
16-17
Paramount Center
559 Washington Street,
Boston, MA
Box Office 617.824.8400 or visit bostoncontemporarydance.org
Friday,
August 16 – Panels and Workshops – Check website for the latest schedule
Saturday,
August 17 at 12 p.m. – Boston Edition Performance
Saturday,
August 17 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. – National Showcase Performance
Tickets
- $25-$35; premium seating $75
Additional Information for Reporters: Company Highlights
Ellenore Scott’s ELSCO Dance (New York, NY): Ellenore Scott founded the ELSCO Dance project in 2011. Her company of dancers explores and celebrates the divergent and convergent aspects of commercial dance and concert dance. Scott’s unique creative mission emerged from her classical training at the Dance Theater of Harlem, the Julliard School and the Joffrey Ballet, as well as her time as a cast member on So You Think You Can Dance?—Scott became America’s fourth favorite dancer and later returned to the show as an all-star—and NBC’s Smash. ELSCO Dance has performed at festivals across the nation.
Robert Moses’ Kin (San Francisco, CA): Robert Moses' Kin's (RMK) mission is to produce work that speaks to what is specific and unique in human nature. RMK uses movement as the medium through which race, class, culture, and gender are used to voice the existence of our greater potential and unfulfilled possibilities. Since the company's founding in 1995, RMK has developed and produced 90 original choreographic works, primarily by the Artistic Director Robert Moses, ranging from neoclassical ballet to postmodern movement theatre. The company is known in the Bay Area and across the country for a distinctive style of dance that powerfully combines athletic technique, rhythmic complexity, fusion of different dance styles, and gestural detail. It is a "dancers' style of dance" that nevertheless has broad appeal to non-dance audiences. Having established itself as one of the Bay Area's most innovative and exciting contemporary dance companies and a strong player on the national dance scene, RMK also serves as a role model for younger dance companies and artists, especially those of color.
Jean Appolon Expressions (Boston, MA): Jean Appolon’s Cambridge-based company reaches beyond its Boston-area performances and residencies. Appolon hails from Port-au-Prince, Haiti and has trained at many prestigious dance institutions in Haiti and the United States, including: Lynn Williams Rousier Dance School, the Viviane Gauthier Dance Company, and the Folkloric Ballet of Haiti, the Harvard and Radcliffe Dance Program, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and Joffrey American Ballet School. Jean Appolon Expressions aims to nurture and develop the healing elements of dance, which is manifested in the company’s local live performances as well as its free Summer Dance Institute, held annually in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Institute drew over 50 young dancers in 2012 and focuses on Haitian folkloric dance, modern dance, and yoga. Appolon offers the program for free to young Haitian dancers who do not have access to dance classes.
