Fifteen years ago, Summer Stages Dance was launched at Concord Academy.
Our goal was to create a rigorous training program for students of
contemporary dance and a laboratory for choreographers to develop new
work. Today, Summer Stages is one of the region’s most acclaimed
summer festivals. The program has built
an innovative curriculum, a distinguished roster of faculty and performing
artists, increasingly accomplished alumni, and a loyal and growing
audience.
Welcome to Summer Stages Dance 2012—our 15th Anniversary Season! This
July we will bring together an extraordinary group of dance artists to teach,
mentor and perform. The intimate nature of our Workshop and our emphasis
on participation in the creation of new work makes the Summer Stages experience
unique. The incomparable dance artists Kyle Abraham, Sean
Curran, Jack Ferver, Lauren Grant, Jeff Kazin,
David Leventhal, David Parker, Nic Petry, Keith Sabado, Amber Sloan, Risa Steinberg,
Dan Wagoner, Teri Weksler, Andrea Woods, and Reggie Wilson will
all be in residence to teach and to create new work for our participants.
Reggie will be joining us with his company, Fist and Heel Performance Group,
and developing new work inspired by Zora
Neale Hurston’s novel Moses,
Man of the Mountain. The evening-length piece will premiere at
Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. Our
students will have the privilege of seeing this major new project
at its beginnings.
Summer Stages Meet the Artist Performance Series offers students
and audiences an intimate view of some of the most vital, provocative
and rich-with-feeling dance makers working today! We will celebrate
our anniversary milestone with "Choreographer Portraits," an
exciting new addition to our programming. The choreographer is
Jack Ferver and the portrait is a mini-festival of not only his own
awkwardly beautiful and extravagantly humorous works, Rumble Ghost,
Me, Michelle, and Two Alike, but also a presentation of his favorite
film, Fassbinder's "The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant." The
film will receive an introduction by Jack that illuminates its impact
on his own work. The Series continues with the Boston premiere
of a new choreographic force, Kyle Abraham. Kyle was at Summer
Stages for two seasons as a workshop participant and returns this year
with his company, Abraham In Motion, to perform Live!
The Realist MC, fresh from its premiere at The Kitchen in New
York City.
And finally, students will perform the
new work created during the Workshop
at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston
in the Choreographers’ Project Showcase. The
presentation will include new work by Reggie Wilson, our Choreographic
Fellows, and Sean Curran's Left Exit to John Cage's beautifully
serene composition Piano2.
All these artists, from Abraham
to Wagoner, from Curran to Steinberg,
make studying at Summer Stages Dance an unparalleled experience. We
think you’ll agree that our 2012 Workshop and Performance Series
are not to be missed! Please join us and make this our most vital
year ever of dance making!
Warm Regards,
Amy Spencer & Richard Colton
Founding Directors
