Rainy Days

We are headed into spring and there is plenty of rain to open that doorway. Yesterday I went down to the King Street Garden Park (pictured here on the side) where we perform on May 31 at 4:30 pm (free). It will provide a great backdrop for "Incidence" and I love the location, a junction right as you enter Old Town Alexandria on King Street. Now we won't say anything about what rain does to outdoor performances, will we?
Later that same day we have our spring fundraiser, an annual event to help raise money for the coming year. The performance promises an outdoor showing using the Monroe Street side of the Arlington Arts Center as a projection surface. We do have a few things planned for inside plus food and drink. We received our first ever two hour liquor license in order to host the event and there will be a silent auction table. If you have anything you would care to contribute for our silent auction, please do let us know. That event is also free though we will be asking for contributions for food and drink.
So as this rainy day passes and the newspaper says it will be 80 degrees by Friday, I know we are in store for changes. My hopes for change are never disappointed since that is life with all its impermanence. Catch us while you can.

More about Mar 21

Rich Kleinfeldt from Washington Saxphone Quartet came in for a few photos with us last week. As well as playing the NPR theme song (which is heard on NPR all through the US daily), Rich is quite talented with keeping his concentration while dancers leap all about. That's Brianne you see jumping into the frame.
I've been rehearsing with a group of women that comprise our Adult Repertory group - and funneling some of the same material into a reconfigured trio of company members - Andrea, Cait and Whitney. It's been challenging and inspiring to swap material between the dancers, and work with the limitations that are the basis for the choreography.
Hope you can come to see us at The Athenaeum on March 21 at 7:30. We truly look forward to this coming performance with live music. http://www.janefranklin.com/ for tickets - or just give us a call at 703.933.1111 for more information

Its in the Air

After finishing a very full fall season, we are entering a stage of new work. We'll be premiering work with the Washington Saxophone Quartet on March 21, 2009 at 7:30 pm at the Athenaeum in Alexandria. This marks our debut performance at the Athenaeum and we are grateful to be performing in this lovely space in the heart of Old Towne Alexandria. We welcome guest performers: a small group of adult dancers, children from Young Dancers Project, and of course the Washington Saxophone Quartet. The Athenaeum offers a close up experience for audiences and an especially great way to get know recent work such as "Incidence." The installation piece by Howard Connelly will look interesting in this location as the dancers will finally have the height, depth and width to be able to use the apparatus completely.
We are offering ticket discounts right now on our web site. One child is free with each adult general admission purchase. Please save the date to come see us on March 21.

Indistinct Boundaries

We are premiering a new piece with Bryan Leister on January 10 at 8 pm at Woolly Mammoth. Bryan is using black and white animations to explore the edge of perception between real and virtual. Indistinct Boundaries blurs the lines between expectations and what actually happens; between virtual and real. It explores the dynamics of polar opposites by animating shadows and by casting shadows of objects that are not there. Bryan Leister has generated the music mathematically through cycles and wave forms and has created animated organic structures based on mathematical algorithms that evolve over time. The dance, created in six parts, is an environment that amplifies and isolates the projections.
You can get tickets online at http://www.janefranklin.com/ or by calling 703.933.1111. We hope to see you there.

Washington City Paper: Arts

Washington City Paper: Arts & Events: Jane Franklin Dance

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Incidence

We are working with an aluminum piece that Howard Connelly created for "Incidence." The whole idea is about chance and change, how we move things along, and how we don't know even when there is familiarity with components. We are developing segments of choreography that will be performed dependent on the visual appearance of the sculpture. The cues for our changes will come when Gina Biver changes the music. The piece will never be performed in the same order. The linear order is what often makes sense, beginning, middle and end, as you couldn't tell a story quite as well without it, though some films do very well with that idea by taking you forward and backward in time, "Pulp Fiction," "Memento." and many others.
Incidence
Dec 4 pay-what-you can preview

Dec 5, 6, 12, 13 at 8 pm

Dec 7 and 14 at 3pm

Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint

916 G Street NW

Washington DC

Tix: $15

At the door or online at

Jane Franklin Dance has established itself as an arts group with a penchant for innovative productions and a commitment to community outreach. The company crosses disciplines to create partnerships with musicians and multimedia and visual artists; it often performs in unusual locations and encourages participation from residents, even those who are not dancers by nature or training.

It's been a good year for JFD. The group was named Best Dance Company in Washington City Paper's "Best of D.C. 2008" and made its international debut at Foro Performatica, a conference and festival at the Universidad Las Americas Puebla in Mexico. The group's ongoing projects include work with senior adult centers and after-school youth groups.

A case in point: this morning's "Concert for Community," a low-priced matinee. The performance will feature excerpts from this weekend's dance concert combined with the onstage participation of seniors from Arlington's Walter Reed and Langston Brown community centers.

And as for taking creative risks, what other dance company would create a piece called "Howard Dean's Scream"? Alas, that's not on this weekend's program, "The Music Made Me Do It," but "Breaking Ground," which combines dance, video and skateboarding, is. The piece was performed previously at a warehouse in the District and at a park in Arlington before being adapted for the T.J. Community Theatre's proscenium stage. Danced to music by the Low End String Quartet, it offers the classical sounds of a string quartet, reworked to use electric guitar, alternating with electronic hip-hop music by Monstah Black.

Saturday's concert will open with dances set to the pop standards "I've Got Rhythm" and "Blue Moon," to be performed by the 20-voice Metropolitan Chorus. The company will share the stage with the performers of the Young Dancers Project.

The evening will also feature the a cappella H-B Woodlawn Chamber Singers, under the direction of William Podolski, with an antiwar song, "You Are the New Day," and "Son de Camaguey," a Cuban folk song about the lush scenery and "naturally good-looking people" of the region. To accentuate that latter point, the JFD company will be joined by Drew Model School performers.


Rounding out the program, the company will perform "Branch" to Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 with guest artist Florian Roullier, and a duet, "Hand Hold," set to a composition for two marimbas and synthesizer.


-- MARIANNE MEYER

Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre is at 125 S. Old Glebe Rd. in Arlington. The nearest Metro station is at Ballston, which connects to the 10B bus toward Hunting Towers. Tickets at the door for today's show are $5 general admission; Saturday's show is $30 general admission, $20 for students and seniors, and $16 for children younger than 12. Information about reduced-price tickets is available online athttp://www.janefranklin.comor by phone at 703-933-1111.