DANCE CAROUSEL Returns at the Ground Floor Theatre in October

At the Ground Floor Theatre, 20+ artists will come together for a live event. Dance Carousel – 40 dances in 40 minutes – is being re-introduced into the dance community after an 11-year hiatus.

Two different programs, Carousel A on Wednesday, October 18th and Friday, October 20th and Carousel B on Thursday, October 19th and Saturday, October 21st will each showcase the work of ten different choreographers. Each choreographer will create 4 one-minute dances that will be shown in a round, amounting to 40 minutes of dance.

Dance Carousel, a uniquely formatted production of new contemporary dance and dance-based performance art, was founded in 2004 by Ellen Bartel, then Artistic Director of Spank Dance Company (now Ellen Bartel Dance Collective). The Dance Carousel productions of the past integrated hundreds of choreographers, dancers, and dancegoers in a distinctly Austin (that is, weirdly wonderful…) event. The city has grown and changed in many ways, and giving a new life to an old tradition promises to cross-pollinate and enliven the local community, with a sweet mix of nostalgia and forward-looking innovation.

Ellen Bartel, named “Best Dance Mobilizer” in 2008 for her tireless work of bringing people together, continues at the helm of this resurrection, with help from Austin dance producers Emily Rushing, Lisa Kobdish, Rosalyn Nasky and Alexa Capareda (who have collectively garnered multiple Best Dancer/Choreographer awards, nominations, and accolades). Named Best Original Dance Event by the Austin Chronicle and beloved by the Austin dance community for more than a decade, Dance Carousel will blend established and emerging Austin creators for a revitalized iteration where creativity flourishes and nearly anything can happen within a minute. Barry Pineo of the Austin Chronicle proclaimed in 2006 that Dance Carousel is “one of the most pleasurable, thought-provoking, eclectic hours you will ever spend in a theatre” and that “Ellen Bartel’s idea of having 10 choreographers create four dances each and then present them in a kind of round is not just a neat, quirky idea, but a brilliantly entertaining one.”

The lineup hopes to ensure diverse styles and dynamic range. The choreographers include Jahna Bobolia, Alexa Capareda, Mira Cook, Austin Community College Faculty (Darla Johnson, Melissa Sanderson, Catherine Solaas), Brandon Gonzalez, Katherine Hodges, Lisa Kobdish, Taryn Lavery, Rosalyn Nasky, and Kelsey Oliver in Carousel A, and Ellen Bartel, Jairus Carr, Dany Casey and Errin Delperdang, Alyson Dolan, Heloise Gold, Evelyn Hoeslcher, Sharon Marroquin, Anu Naimpally, Rachel Nayer, and Emily Rushing in Carousel B.

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