DanceNow, Sean Dorsey Dance,
Delfos Danza Contemporanea,
Robert Moses’ Kin
among performances

LEWISTON — The Bates Dance Festival announces its 2015 season of public events, taking place July 1 through Aug. 8 on the Bates College campus.

Presenting stunning new works, the renowned contemporary artists performing at the six-week festival are Sean Dorsey Dance, Delfos Danza Contemporanea and Robert Moses’ Kin, as well as prominent faculty and visiting artists.

In its fourth decade as a leading American dance center, the Bates Dance Festival is a respected laboratory for artists making important contributions to contemporary dance. The festival propels a cycle of creative development and innovation as it trains new dancers and makers, introduces emerging artists and welcomes returning performers who have experienced significant artistic growth through the festival.

Information about tickets and event locations, as well as additional performance details, will be available by April 1 on the festival website: batesdancefestival.org.

Opening the 2015 season is “DanceNow,” a revue showcasing the diverse talents of festival faculty and alumni. In a stylistic cornucopia, the evening comprises new works by post-modernist Karl Rogers’ Red Dirt Dance; modern dance dynamos Kellie Ann Lynch and Erika Pujic; jazz dancer Courtney D. Jones; hip-hop choreographer Shakia Johnson; and astute storyteller Lida Winfield.

Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 10 and 11, at Bates College’s air-conditioned Schaeffer Theatre, 329 College St.

Sean Dorsey was named one of the nation’s “Top 25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine, and his company was named “San Francisco’s Best Dance Company” by SF Weekly. At Bates, Dorsey presents the East Coast premiere of “The Missing Generation,” a dance-theater production that explores the impact of the loss of nearly an entire generation of transgender and queer people to AIDS during the 1980s.

This evening-length dance/theater production features Sean Dorsey Dance’s powerful fusion of full-throttle dancing, intimate storytelling, luscious partnering, highly physical theater and an original score. Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, July 16 and 18, in Schaeffer Theatre, 329 College St.

Delfos Danza Contemporanea, one of Mexico’s foremost dance troupes, presents the compelling evening-length work “When Disguises Are Hung Up” at the festival. “Disguises” is a reflection on appearances and the loss and rediscovery of the self. Both deeply conceptual and accessible, “Disguises” is one of the most acclaimed works in Delfos’ repertory.

Created in 2010, this work for seven dancers features music by Mario Lavista, Meredith Monk, Schumann, Sergio Díaz, Bach and Vivaldi. Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 24 and 25, in Schaeffer Theatre, 329 College St.

Robert Moses’ Kin returns to Bates with “NEVABAWARLDAPECE,” a full-company work of urgent, pulsing energy that explores critical moments of change in America’s liberation movements, insurrections and revolts. In a world of seemingly endless chaos and confrontation, “NEVABAWARLDAPECE” feels like a plea for a return to core principles.

The work was a collaboration among artistic director Moses; award-winning writer and performer Carl Hancock Rux; Afro-Celtic, folk-funk, hip-Appalachian vocalist Laura Love; blues musician, composer and MacArthur Fellow Corey Harris, a member of the Bates College class of 1991; and lighting and visual designer Elaine Buckholtz. Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 31 and Aug. 1, in Schaeffer Theatre, 329 College St.

More festival events

All told, the Bates Dance Festival comprises mainstage and informal performances, lectures and other presentations by more than 60 internationally recognized dancers.

In addition to the mainstage performances, the festival offers:

The annual “Musicians’ Concert,” a global mix of music by 10 remarkable composers and players, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 4, at the Franco Center, 46 Cedar St., Lewiston.

The “Different Voices” concerts showcasing diverse styles and perspectives by visiting choreographers from around the world, taking place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Aug. 6 and 7, in Schaeffer Theatre, 329 College St.

The “Festival Finale,” presenting student dancers of all ages performing contemporary works by Robert Moses, Rennie Harris, Autumn Eckman, Claudia Lavista and Omar Carrum. Also representing the festival’s Youth Arts Program, the finale takes place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, in Alumni Gymnasium, 130 Central Ave.

Free “Show & Tell” lecture-demonstrations by the companies in residence, held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays in Schaeffer Theatre. Offering a glimpse into the creative process, Show & Tell takes place for Sean Dorsey Dance on July 14; Delfos, July 21; and Robert Moses’s Kin, July 28.

“Inside Dance: Understanding Contemporary Dance,” a series of pre-performance lectures by dance writer Debra Cash and post-performance talks in Schaeffer Theatre, 329 College St. Affording insight into the artists and their work, 7 p.m. Saturday lectures precede the Dorsey performance on July 18; Delfos on July 25; and Moses on Aug. 1. Talkbacks follow most Friday evening performances.

More about the artists: DanceNow

Karl Rogers, founder of Red Dirt Dance, is a lead dancer with David Dorfman Dance and co-director of Bates Dance Festival’s Young Dancers Workshop. His quirky choreography blends dance and theater to create stories of humor and human foibles.

Erika Pujic was a founding member and rehearsal director for Battleworks Dance Company. A sought-after teacher, she is on faculty at the Ailey School, Marymount Manhattan College and Skidmore College. Pujic, who has thrilled Bates Dance Festival audiences as a performer with Battleworks, joins our Young Dancers Workshop faculty this summer.

Kellie Ann Lynch is a performer with Doug Elkins Choreography, Etc. and Adele Myers and Dancers, and co-founded Elm City Dance Collective, which provides a platform for experiential dance development in New Haven, Conn. An enthralling performer, Kellie has participated in the Bates Dance Festival as a student, counselor and performer with Adele Myers.

Courtney D. Jones, named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2012, is a professional dancer, actress and teacher. She performed in Broadway’s First National Tour of “Wicked” in 2009 and performs frequently with the Houston Grand Opera, Houston Metropolitan Dance Company and Hope Stone, Inc. among others. Courtney has served as a popular Bates Dance Festival counselor and faculty member.

Shakia Johnson, a certified teacher with the National Dance Institute, has choreographed and directed more than 40 hip-hop, modern, African and lyrical works, including a work for the Celtics/NBA half-time show. A phenomenal creator and performer, Shakia has been a Bates Dance Festival student, emerging choreographer and guest teacher.

Lida Winfield is dancer, choreographer, spoken-word and teaching artist whose work addresses issues of education, disability, access and the power of the arts. Lida, who wowed audiences last summer as one of the festival’s emerging choreographers, returns with her heart-wrenching and hilarious autobiographical dance stories.

Sean Dorsey

Dorsey is a Bay Area choreographer, dancer and writer. As the United States’ first critically acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographer, he has gained national support for his signature fusion of modern dance, text-based narratives, theater and original music. He has been awarded two Isadora Duncan Dance Awards and the Goldie Award for Performance, and has been commended as one of the top ten San Francisco dance artists by both the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the Bay Area Reporter.

Dorsey has been awarded grants and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project, National Performance Network, Creative Work Fund, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, James Irvine Foundation and the San Francisco Arts Commission. His recent “The Secret History Of Love” received rave reviews and toured to more than 20 U.S. cities including Boston, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Lewiston, Maine. Learn more:http://www.seandorseydance.com/

Delfos Danza Contemporanea

Mexican choreographer-dancers Claudia Lavista and Victor Manuel Ruiz founded Delfos in 1992 as a collective of artists whose creative vision is distinguished by the fluid physicality and poetic narratives within their diverse repertory. Delfos’ work has been presented throughout Latin America as well as Canada, the United States, Europe, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and Lebanon.

Delfos has won worldwide critical praise; several major awards including the Mexican National Dance Award; and the distinct honor of being the only Mexican company selected to tour extensively in the U.S. with the support of the National Dance Project. Learn more: http://fronteraarts.com/delfos-danza-contemporanea/

Robert Moses’ Kin

Robert Moses’ diverse 11-member company is known for its eclectic movement vocabulary, demanding choreography, ferocious dancing and provocative themes. Moses’ focus on the expressiveness of the human body and his desire to speak with the voices of his African American heritage have produced works with international recognition.

Kin has premiered more than 70 original works that range from neoclassical ballet to postmodern movement theatre. In 2014, Moses was commissioned by Robert Battle to create “The Pleasure of the Lesson” for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Robert Moses’ Kin has earned a host of awards including four Bay Area Isadora Duncan Awards (Izzies), as well as grants from such institutions as the National Endowment for the Arts and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The company has appeared at venues throughout the U.S., including Jacob’s Pillow, the Bates Dance Festival, Colorado Dance Festival, Dance Center at Columbia College, University of Texas and New York’s City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival. Learn more: http://www.robertmoseskin.org/

About the Bates Dance Festival

Founded in 1982 at Bates College, the Bates Dance Festival brings together an international community of contemporary choreographers, performers, educators and students in a cooperative community to study, perform and create new work.