The Modern Atlanta Dance Festival

After a tiring week and with a mild headache, I spent my Friday evening watching the MAD Festival at the Balzer Theater at Herren’s. The evening began well with “A Waltz for the End of Our Time,” choreographed by Douglas Scott for Full Radius Dance. This was the only work on the program to have live musical accompaniment, which was provided by a trio called Flight of Swallows on violin/banjo, guitar, and cello. The piece presented a sense of always moving forward without really having a specific narrative. I was particularly impressed by some fairly athletic partnering between Laurel Lawson and Rebekah Pleasant as well as the shapes that the remaining three dancers formed as they worked together. It was a good start to the festival and lifted my mood dramatically as I anticipated seeing the rest of the show.
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Atlanta Ballet’s MAYhem: Kissed

Atlanta Ballet’s dancers really rose to all of the challenges of their spring concert, MAYhem: Kissed. A mixed repertoire show, the first two pieces were modern dance followed by some real ballet. It was a good mix of styles and I suspect that anyone who can appreciate dance created in the last 10 years could find something to enjoy in it.

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Room to Move: The Space Between Us

Taking advantage of my decision to take a four day weekend, I made my way to 7 Stages this evening to see Room to Move Dance with the Penderecki String Quartet perform the Space Between Us. The program was made up of three dance pieces, two with live accompaniment, and also a dance-less performance by the quartet. All dance pieces were choreographed by artistic director Amy Gately except for two of the six movements of the final piece.

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Atlanta Dance Collective: Time + Itinerant

Atlanta Dance Collective’s Time + Itinerant at Synchronicity Theater included four dance pieces by four choreographers in four distinct styles with 3 1/3 distinct ensembles of performers. The live performances were followed by a brief screening of dance for film, the Opine Dance Film Festival, that offered an additional 11 pieces for any audience members who paid the extra $3 on top of the $12 ticket for the main dance concert to stick around and watch it. Overall, the evening not only offered great bang for the buck but also some pretty decent dance and film.
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Atlanta Ballet: 20|20 Visionary

Despite some weaknesses on the front in the of the program, Atlanta Ballet’s March production, 20|20 Visionary, was generally good. A mixed repertoire program, all three pieces were commissioned by the company, although only one received its premiere with this program.
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Full Radius Dance: Breakaway

After an awful day at work, I walked down to 7 Stages where I bought a ticket to Breakaway by Full Radius Dance and then drank a sizable cup of not very good wine before being seated for the show. I must say that it’s a good thing that I live within walking distance of the theater because I don’t think that I had enough to eat for supper and the wine hit me pretty hard. All of that is to say that, although I enjoyed the dance concert, the first half of it is already a bit of a blur to me.
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