Core Dance Presents 40th Anniversary Season

Core Dance, the internationally-recognized, award-winning contemporary dance organization based in Atlanta/Decatur, GA and Houston, TX, will present its 40th season of original dance works and community-based performances and outreach. The season will celebrate the purposeful artistic risk taking, invention, and community participation, that have exemplified Core Dance's 40 years of creating dance that is relevant in Atlanta, Houston, and around the globe.

In honor of 40 years of dance-making, Core Dance will feature "if... a memoir," choreographed by Co-Founder and Artistic Director Sue Schroeder, November 1 and 2, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. at The B Complex in Southwest, Atlanta.

The piece, created in collaboration with the Dance Artists of Core Dance, Christian Meyer (composer), Simon Gentry (cinematographer) and Sarah Turquety (poetess) is an evening-length, physical theater choreo-poem that draws from early 1950s Beat Generation culture and influences, and uses jazz-inspired rhythm and improvisation that deliberately rejects [the] standard narrative values [of dance]. The piece was developed using the artistic research practices of the Tamalpa Life/Art Process (Anna and Daria Halprin), Ensemble Thinking, and voice and movement scores.

If . . . a memoir came for my own questioning about our world situation, says Artistic Director Sue Schroeder. The earth will survive us, but we may lose each other, [which is] the human experience. My hope is that as artists we can spark a larger discourse about what is possible for the future.

If . . . a memoir will also be performed in Houston (October 25-26), and Conway, AR (October 15), and will have a residency in Leicester, UK (March/April 2020).

The season will offer four Lunchtime in the Studios on September 19, November 21, February 20, and April 23 at 12:00 p.m. Guests receive a complimentary lunch and have the opportunity to observe and respond as Core Dance art-makers share their work.

Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor's much-lauded American Playground and The Third Dance will tour throughout the southeast in February 2020. Dates and locations to be announced. Core Dance will also initiate a new commission from Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor in the 2019-2020 season. Details TBD.

In February 2020, Core Dance will also host CoreoLab with John McFall, a three-week research and choreographic laboratory that utilizes improvisation to explore ideas and dance process. More info can be found at coredance.org.

March 20-21, 2019, Core Dance will premiere an outdoor performance of Manifolds, a new work by Core Dance Artist Rose Shields that questions the meaning of our human existence through the lens of architecture and dimension. Location TBD.

In partnership with The Field NYC, Core Dance will offer Fieldwork, a unique forum for artists of all disciplines to share developing works and exchange feedback with their peers The works created in the workshops will be performed in a Fieldwork Showcase on December 8, 2019 at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts at Emory University, and at Field Day on April 4, 2020 at Core Studios. Field Day is an opportunity for community artists to show works-in-process and receive feedback from the audience and fellow performers. This non-curated performance opportunity is available to artists of all mediums dance, theater, spoken word, music, visual art, etc. Field Day 2020 will include the Spring Fieldwork Showcase.

On Saturday, April 18 at 4:00 p.m. EST, the Core Dance Artists will be joining 1500 dancers from across the country to perform in National Water Dance, site-specific dances at rivers, bays, lakes, oceans, or any water sites nearby, uniting to celebrate and take responsibility for protecting our water. Core Dance will be performing at Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island, GA. The event will be Live-Streamed on Core Dance's YouTube and Facebook Pages that can be found at coredance.org. For a full list of participating cities & states, please visit nationalwaterdance.org.

EnCore Dance on Film, an annual festival that features short movies by dance filmmakers from around the world, will be May 22 23, 2020 as a part of ArtWALK at the Decatur Arts Festival.

On June 7, 2020, the Core Dance Artists will participate in Planetary Dance, an annual all-day ritual of healing and community renewal that brings people of all ages and abilities together in a beautiful setting to dance for a purpose. The Planetary Dance Community invites people all over the world to join in a dance for peace in their own communities and peace with the Earth. The event will take place in Decatur, GA.

In July 2020, Core Dance will offer the professional dance intensive, DIG! and Teens Activate, a spoken word and movement program. DIG is a summer intensive for professional dance artists. Led by art-makers from around the world, participants will experience a rigorous investigation of the body in space and expand their artistic and movement research practices. Teens Activate is a week-long program designed for young adults age 15 18. Integrating the art forms of spoken word and movement, teens will activate their ideas, and give voice to their concerns and fears.

Core Dance also continues its transformative community-based initiative, Dynamic X-Change, a healing arts program that uses movement as a catalyst for change. Community partners in Georgia are Decatur Housing Authority, Global Village and East Atlanta Kids Club.

For more information on these collaborations and performances, and the 2019-2020 season in Houston, Texas, please visit coredance.org.

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