Ordway Welcomes Diavolo/Architecture in Motion Tonight

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts will present Diavolo / Architecture in Motion, an award-winning dance company known for its athletic and daredevil performance style, for one-night-only tonight, April 18, at 7:30 p.m. The show, which is part of the Ordway's World Music & Dance series, will include two pieces: a new work entitled Cubicle, co-commissioned by the Ordway along with the Des Moines Center for the Performing Arts, and Transit Space. Tickets start at $23 and can be purchased online at www.ordway.org, by phone at 651-224-4222 or in person at the Ordway ticket office.

Founded in 1992 by artistic director Jacques Heim, Diavolo / Architecture in Motion uses architectural structures to explore the relationship between the danger of our environment and the fragility of the human body. The company has become known for its high risk performance style in which dancers leap from and tumble on large architectural structures, creating what the company calls "Architecture in Motion."

"This group pushes the boundaries of modern dance, combining aspects of ballet, contemporary dance, acrobatics, gymnastics, martial arts and hip-hop. Their inventive performances create a thrilling and unique experience for the audience," said Dayna Martinez, Ordway's artistic director of World Music & Dance. "It's an honor to present a group that captivates its audience by emphasizing its graceful yet daring aerobatics, while incorporating strong personal themes into their works, such as human struggle, fear, danger, survival, chaos, order, deconstruction, reconstruction, destiny, destination, faith and love."

Set in an abstract but strikingly familiar version of corporate America, Cubicle, the company's newest work, explores themes of confinement, freedom, homogeneity, individuality, monotony and anarchy. The work features an architectural set piece developed by engineering students from the University of St. Thomas Engineering Department during the Ordway's Campus Connection program in 2009.

The second piece, Transit Space, explores themes of feeling lost, finding a sense of purpose and coming together. Influenced by skateboarding culture and the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, Transit Space uses skateboard ramps as set pieces to represent an urban environment with ever-shifting physical and emotional spaces.

Ordway's World Music & Dance series is sponsored by Target. For tickets and more information, visit www.ordway.org.