Event

Festival 2: Local Heroes

Three local heroes who have emerged as leaders of the next generation from established companies and choreographic traditions and are graduates of the ODC Artists in Residence program highlight the second festival weekend. Yannis Adonious Less-Sylphides is a contemporary metamorphosis of Michel Fokines 1909 ballet Les Sylphides. Although set to the same score by Chopin, Adoniou draws from a distinctly modern movement vocabulary, bringing Romantic ballet forward in time making it aesthetically relevant while maintaining the ethereal grace upon which ballet is based. Adoniou is an acclaimed alumnus of Alonzo Kings LINES Ballet and co-founder of the ground-breaking Kunst-Stoff. Less-Sylphides features ten dancers and film. Manuelito Biag is known for creating strikingly original works of emotional power and depth using his and his dancers personal narratives to finely craft movement that taps into shared human experiences. Ballast explores the physical, emotional and spiritual process and meaning of making a place called home. Ballast features an original score by Jess Rowland. Alex Ketleys intensely personal Monument uses movement, music and video in a non-narrative tribute to a departed friend. Ketleys dancers are a group he has met and assembled during his travels across country and he considers the work an imprint of their time together as well as his memory-images of the loss of his friend refracted against his style. Ketley is a former San Francisco Ballet dancer and director of The Foundry. He retired from ballet at age 24 to pursue creating his own work and quickly became a sought-after choreographer with new work commissioned by the Hubbard StStreet Dance Company, LINES Ballet, Ballet Met, Robert Moses Kin and others. This performance is part of ODC s Festival 2; a post-show reception and informal artist discussion follows each show.