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Boston Globe
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘The Center Will Not Hold' brims with creative energy
Advertisement Dorrance, a MacArthur Fellow, founded Dorrance Dance in 2011; this weekend marks the fifth time Global Arts Live has brought her company to Boston. Dorrance and Bessie Award winner Asherie met in 2004, when both were teaching at Broadway Dance Center, Dorrance tap, Asherie breaking. Asherie's 'Odeon' was the Celebrity Series's first event at New England Conservatory's Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre in the fall of 2018, and she was part of the company that presented Dorrance's 'SOUNDspace' at the ICA in 2023. 'The Center Will Not Hold' begins with the sounds of percussion before the curtain rises to reveal John Angeles seated at a tabletop instrument. Silhouetted against a blue-lit industrial backdrop with towering stepladder, he bangs out the opening three minutes of a sophisticated rhythmic score that combines his live performance with commissioned music from Donovan Dorrance, Michelle's younger brother. The lights dim and then come up on Asherie and Dorrance standing side by side. Wearing sneakers and more or less staying in place, they react individually to the music while staying in touch with each other. They seem to be asking how we relate through movement. The center just about holds. Advertisement That's the theme for the rest of the hour, as Kathy Kaufmann's lighting cues the emotional shifts. To music that at times resonates with pain, the dancers, all in black and sneakers, line up facing the audience and move in agitated jerks and pops, exchanging positions, suggesting brief solos, a fraught ensemble wary of one another. Angeles, who otherwise is visible upstage left behind a percussion kit, comes forward and is flanked by Manon Bal and Tomoe 'Beasty' Carr, their arms gesticulating frantically; it's as if he were there to keep the two women apart. Dorrance, now in tap shoes, engages in a furious battle with Angeles and his ambulatory percussion, each in turn driving the other back. Matthew 'Megawatt' West crabwalks, handstands, headstands, and serves up eye-popping floorwork while Ron Myles circles warily; for a moment they face off. Donnetta 'Lil Bit' Jackson does an explosive solo in front of the group, which then moves to shield her from the eyes of the audience. Halfway through, there's a kind of intermezzo where Angeles, Dorrance, and Eriko Jimbo sit at the percussion table and bang it with their hands, fusing music and dance. Bal and Carr confront each other again before the men intervene and produce a truce of sorts. Asherie and West reprise the piece's opening duet. Then Asherie and Dorrance turn that up a notch, Asherie showing exquisite control in ghostly, slow-motion spinning while Dorrance shadows and finally circles her with frenetic tapping. Advertisement Dancers move in and out of spotlights as if dodging unfriendly eyes; then the lighting brightens and we get brief animated solos from Jimbo, Virgil 'Lil O' Gadson, West, Bal, and Carr, the latter two still eyeing each other. Jackson, Myles, and Michael Manson Jr. 'tap' as a trio while Dorrance accompanies them from a distance; the footwork is perfectly matched, but only Dorrance and Jackson actually have tap shoes on. The center now is a hybrid of tap and breaking, the two street forms indistinguishable. Angeles brings the piece to a close by leaving his percussion kit and joining in, his clapping and body-slapping now the only audible sound. Community restored, all 11 performers stomp and clap, making their own music, dancers indistinguishable from the music as well as from the dance. 'The Center Will Not Hold: A Dorrance Dance Production' Created and directed by Ephrat Asherie and Michelle Dorrance. Performed by Dorrance Dance. Presented by Global Arts Live. At: Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, Friday April 25. Remaining performance: April 26. Tickets $66-$94. 617-876-4275, Jeffrey Gantz can be reached at
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dayton Contemporary Dance Co. thriving as it tells the stories of Black people
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — For more than 50 years, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company has thrilled audiences all over the world. The internationally renowned organization prides itself on being culturally diverse and telling the stories of Black people. Debbie Blunden-Diggs, artistic director at DCDC, said it's been that way since the beginning. 'It is a company rooted in the African American experience,' said Debbie, 'which means we tell the stories of our culture and beyond our platform as wider than that.' Local Black artist keeping Dayton's art scene alive 'We transcend boundaries with what we do in our storytelling through movement. It's an experience unlike any other.' It's what her mother, DCDC founder Jeraldyne Blunden, envisioned when she started the company in 1968. 'She wanted to make a place for African American dancers to get really, really valuable in quality training,' Debbie said of her mother. 'And so that's what she set out to do.' Blunden and the company had humble beginnings, training girls in the hallways of borrowed spaces and having to constantly move without a true place to call home. Yet she persevered and blazed a trail for what a Black-owned dance company could be. 'I don't even know that I understood the magnitude of what she was trying to do,' Debbie said. 'I don't know that she understood the magnitude of what she was trying to do.' Now 56 years later, DCDC is one of the largest contemporary dance companies in America, and one of the best in Ohio. Artists come from all around the world to be classically trained. The company has toured the world dancing on stage for packed houses in Russia, Germany, Kazakhstan, even performing in front of European royalty. For some, it's more than just a privilege. 'It means responsibility to do things as authentically as I can,' said DCDC dancer and choreographer Qarrianne Blayr. 'It means bringing people along for that journey, and especially for other Black women in this world and in this company and in my family.' Qarrianne hails from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and has been with the company for more than a decade. She stands on the shoulders of giants, such as Sheri 'Sparkle' Williams, who toured for 46 seasons with the company, a feat unheard of in the dance world. She even received the coveted 'Bessie Award' for exceptional achievement by a dance artist in 2002. These are the types of performers that come through the doors of DCDC, setting the standard for the next generation. 'This company is rooted in the African American experience here in Dayton, Ohio,' said Debbie. 'This is Black History Month. We are Black history. We create it every day. We create it every time we take the stage.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
