Sun April 7, 2019
We Have Ourselves featuring premieres by Erik Lee and Latanya Tigner
SEE EVENT DETAILS
at Malonga Casquelourd Center For The Arts
(see times)
April 6 - 7: Sat. at 8pm, Sun. at 4pm
We Have Ourselves is the title of Dimensions Dance Theater's spring program featuring world premieres by two of its longtime company members, Erik Lee and Latanya Tigner.
Lee views dance as a branch of his Christian ministry. "My mission is always to draw others toward living their best life with love for themselves and others," said Lee. Titled Armed With Joy, Lee's new piece explores the idea that joy is the best bulwark against the inevitable slings and arrows life sends. Set to a mix of South African house and gospel music, Armed With Joy is a celebratory work for Dimensions' full company, including Lee himself.
Tigner, who concurrently serves as co-artistic director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, has had several of her original works commissioned by Dimensions over the years. Sanctuary, her newest, examines different ideas of safety, both in places of solitude and of community. "Sanctuary questions whether there's safety in freedom, and in turn whether there's freedom in safety," said Tigner, who draws on historical examples from apartheid-era South Africa as well as the United States.
"I'm using one song by Hugh Masekela, the great South African jazz artist who passed away last year. 'Stimela' is about the train that took people to the gold mines to labor. The workers weren't allowed to talk, so they developed a nonverbal language which evolved into what we now call gumboot dancing. This adaptation to hardship offered its own kind of sanctuary, and I'll be performing some gumboot dancing in one solo."
In another part of the work, the company will evoke a range of steps from African American social dance. "I've invited three other members of the company to contribute a short phrase from their respective backgrounds that will be adapted into the larger whole. These are steps that invoke a joyful homecoming, a family reunion, and I want to bring some of that basement house party vibe into the theater."
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We Have Ourselves is the title of Dimensions Dance Theater's spring program featuring world premieres by two of its longtime company members, Erik Lee and Latanya Tigner.
Lee views dance as a branch of his Christian ministry. "My mission is always to draw others toward living their best life with love for themselves and others," said Lee. Titled Armed With Joy, Lee's new piece explores the idea that joy is the best bulwark against the inevitable slings and arrows life sends. Set to a mix of South African house and gospel music, Armed With Joy is a celebratory work for Dimensions' full company, including Lee himself.
Tigner, who concurrently serves as co-artistic director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, has had several of her original works commissioned by Dimensions over the years. Sanctuary, her newest, examines different ideas of safety, both in places of solitude and of community. "Sanctuary questions whether there's safety in freedom, and in turn whether there's freedom in safety," said Tigner, who draws on historical examples from apartheid-era South Africa as well as the United States.
"I'm using one song by Hugh Masekela, the great South African jazz artist who passed away last year. 'Stimela' is about the train that took people to the gold mines to labor. The workers weren't allowed to talk, so they developed a nonverbal language which evolved into what we now call gumboot dancing. This adaptation to hardship offered its own kind of sanctuary, and I'll be performing some gumboot dancing in one solo."
In another part of the work, the company will evoke a range of steps from African American social dance. "I've invited three other members of the company to contribute a short phrase from their respective backgrounds that will be adapted into the larger whole. These are steps that invoke a joyful homecoming, a family reunion, and I want to bring some of that basement house party vibe into the theater."
April 6 - 7: Sat. at 8pm, Sun. at 4pm
We Have Ourselves is the title of Dimensions Dance Theater's spring program featuring world premieres by two of its longtime company members, Erik Lee and Latanya Tigner.
Lee views dance as a branch of his Christian ministry. "My mission is always to draw others toward living their best life with love for themselves and others," said Lee. Titled Armed With Joy, Lee's new piece explores the idea that joy is the best bulwark against the inevitable slings and arrows life sends. Set to a mix of South African house and gospel music, Armed With Joy is a celebratory work for Dimensions' full company, including Lee himself.
Tigner, who concurrently serves as co-artistic director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, has had several of her original works commissioned by Dimensions over the years. Sanctuary, her newest, examines different ideas of safety, both in places of solitude and of community. "Sanctuary questions whether there's safety in freedom, and in turn whether there's freedom in safety," said Tigner, who draws on historical examples from apartheid-era South Africa as well as the United States.
"I'm using one song by Hugh Masekela, the great South African jazz artist who passed away last year. 'Stimela' is about the train that took people to the gold mines to labor. The workers weren't allowed to talk, so they developed a nonverbal language which evolved into what we now call gumboot dancing. This adaptation to hardship offered its own kind of sanctuary, and I'll be performing some gumboot dancing in one solo."
In another part of the work, the company will evoke a range of steps from African American social dance. "I've invited three other members of the company to contribute a short phrase from their respective backgrounds that will be adapted into the larger whole. These are steps that invoke a joyful homecoming, a family reunion, and I want to bring some of that basement house party vibe into the theater."
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We Have Ourselves is the title of Dimensions Dance Theater's spring program featuring world premieres by two of its longtime company members, Erik Lee and Latanya Tigner.
Lee views dance as a branch of his Christian ministry. "My mission is always to draw others toward living their best life with love for themselves and others," said Lee. Titled Armed With Joy, Lee's new piece explores the idea that joy is the best bulwark against the inevitable slings and arrows life sends. Set to a mix of South African house and gospel music, Armed With Joy is a celebratory work for Dimensions' full company, including Lee himself.
Tigner, who concurrently serves as co-artistic director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, has had several of her original works commissioned by Dimensions over the years. Sanctuary, her newest, examines different ideas of safety, both in places of solitude and of community. "Sanctuary questions whether there's safety in freedom, and in turn whether there's freedom in safety," said Tigner, who draws on historical examples from apartheid-era South Africa as well as the United States.
"I'm using one song by Hugh Masekela, the great South African jazz artist who passed away last year. 'Stimela' is about the train that took people to the gold mines to labor. The workers weren't allowed to talk, so they developed a nonverbal language which evolved into what we now call gumboot dancing. This adaptation to hardship offered its own kind of sanctuary, and I'll be performing some gumboot dancing in one solo."
In another part of the work, the company will evoke a range of steps from African American social dance. "I've invited three other members of the company to contribute a short phrase from their respective backgrounds that will be adapted into the larger whole. These are steps that invoke a joyful homecoming, a family reunion, and I want to bring some of that basement house party vibe into the theater."
show less
Date/Times:
Malonga Casquelourd Center For The Arts
1428 Alice St, Oakland, CA 94612
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