Annual Winter Dance Concert Features World Premieres, Revival

CalArts’ annual Winter Dance Concert premieres three choreographic works and a revival. | Photo: Rafael Hernandez.

The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance presents three world premieres and a restaging in its annual Winter Dance Concert, featuring choreography by faculty and acclaimed guest artists. The event takes place during the first two weeks of December, with a Dec. 1 and 2 showing in the Sharon Disney Lund Dance Theater on campus, and a Dec. 9 and 10 performance at Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in downtown Los Angeles.

School of Dance faculty and co-founder of the production company The Flying Mammoth Julie Bour premieres The Scent of a Mémoiré, a number which draws inspiration from the “ever-changing alchemy created by the exposure of the Self to Others.” Founder of The Guangdong Dance Company and Fall 2016 Artist-in-Residence Douglas Nielsen’s The Nearest Useable Exit May Be Behind You explores various forms of identity, airport surveillance, truth and lies and the popularity of coffee.

Guest choreographer and Camille A. Brown & Dancers member Juel D. Lane premieres his new work Lavender. Elisa Monte, also a guest choreographer, revives the critically-acclaimed Pigs and Fishes for the CalArts concert, which she created as a commissioned work for the legendary Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

In September this year, Lane and Monte spoke to a class of dancers about the art of dancing and choreography. Lane showed the class his first dance film, Just Another Day, and gave them practical as well as professional advice. Monte spoke of her entry into choreography as a result of an injury, and told the class to “always be ready for luck.”

Above: Juel D. Lane’s ‘Just Another Day.’