The summer 2016 installment of the Black Choreographers Festival has come and gone – an intriguing collection of work, both finished and still-under-construction, by dance-makers who have a lot to say.
Carla previewed the program for KQED Arts and reflected on the shortage of work by black choreographers outside the hip hop world.
If you missed Dimensions Dance Theater’s searing and witty commentary on the gentrification that is transforming the city of Oakland (‘The Town on Notice’), catch this distinguished company on Saturday, 15th October, at the Malonga Casquelourd Center in a revival of ‘Project Panther,’ a 1996 work that marked the 30th anniversary of the birth of the Black Panther Party in Oakland.
Dimensions Dance Theater performs Revolutionaries Circle, from the company’s first Project Panther production, in 1996. Photo courtesy of Dimensions Dance Theater.
Pictured: Ulysses Cooperwood (at center), and company dancers
Artistic Director Deborah Vaughan has updated the work to resonate even more strongly in today’s social and political climate.
‘Project Panther’ features an original jazz score by Oakland composer Glen Pearson, played live.
Click here for more information and tickets to this historic one-day-only event.
Left to right: Marianna Hester, Justin Sharlman, Phylicia Stroud of Dimensions Dance Theater rehearse for the 2016 production of Project Panther, choreographed and directed by Deborah Vaughan, October 15 at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts.
Photo: Ed Miller
