Harlem Stage to Present 17th Edition of E-MOVES, 4/7-9

Harlem Stage is pleased to present the seventeenth edition of their acclaimed dance series E-Moves. This year Harlem Stage has commissioned four evolving choreographers to create exciting new collaborative works with musicians and visual artists. This year's choreographers include Davalois Fearon, Desiree Godsell, Jason Samuels Smith and Laurie M. Taylor.To further support the development of the commissioned works, Harlem Stage has paired each of the artists with a mentor uniquely positioned to provide guidance and insight. This year's mentors are Ted Louis Levy, who is working with Samuels Smith; Nia Love, who is working with Fearon; Edisa Weeks, who is working with Taylor; and Marya Wethers, who is working with Godsell.

Performances of E-Moves will take place April 7, 8 and 9 at 7:30pm at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse (150 Convent Avenue, Manhattan); tickets are $20 ($16 for Harlem Stage members). Call 212.281.9240 ext. 19 or 20 or visit harlemstage.org. A post-show discussion with the choreographers and mentors will follow the Friday, April 8 performance.

Davalois Fearon's Water, Thirst & Stormis a part of a larger work in progress piece titled Consider Water. Consider Water combines three types of artistic expression: dynamic and fluid dance, original music, and visual arts. It is a, multifaceted dance project inspired by domestic and global water issues, like water scarcity, water quality impairment and water-related natural disasters.

In WONDERLAND a GO-GO, Desiree Godsell explores a psychedelic journey that results in the revelation of freedom through movement. Weaving a variety of movement styles including Latin jazz, modern, salsa, cha cha, Go-Go and popular social dances of the sixties, the dancers journey into an alternate universe revealing moments of enlightenment and euphoria. The multi-talented Aku Orraca-Tetteh is a musical collaborator for this production and also acts as a narrator.

Characterized by its high-tempo virtuosity and Afro-Jazz sensibility, Laurie M. Taylor's Doors No Man Can Shut explores the symbolism of walking through doors as a point of transformation. Sometimes we fall for counterfeit doors, only to be disappointed that they were never made for us anyway. But through perseverance, discernment and revelation, we discover which doors were truly made for us, and once opened no one can shut.

In Going The Miles, Emmy Award-winning choreographer Jason Samuels Smith takes a step further than simply paying tribute to Miles Davis. Musical collaborators and respective leaders in the Tap world, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Derick K. Grant, join Samuels Smith, along with Igmar Thomas on trumpet and Alex Hernandez on bass. Together, they present a new musical odyssey that highlights why improvisation is the highest expression in both tap and jazz.

Water, Thirst & Storm, WONDERLAND a GO-GO, and Doors No Man Can Shut have received support from Harlem Stage's Fund for New Work program, which has received support from The Jerome Foundation. Going the Miles has received support from a late-stage production stipend from The Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

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