21
Jul/20

EIGHTH ANNUAL LAKE TAHOE DANCE FESTIVAL

21
Jul/20

lake tahoe dance festival

Who: Lake Tahoe Dance Collective and special guests
What: Virtual dance festival
Where: Lake Tahoe Dance Collective home page
When: July 22-24, free (suggested donation $25), 9:00 EDT (each performance will be available for twenty-four hours)
Why: One of the glass-half-full results of the pandemic is that we’ve been able to experience live dance, music, theater, art, film, and more online from all over the planet, visiting companies we usually don’t get the chance to see. This week we can travel virtually to one of America’s most ravishing areas for the eighth annual Lake Tahoe Dance Festival. “This year’s festival offers us a format where we can not only continue but enhance our mission with the breadth of works and artists we are fortunate to have as collaborators,” artistic director Christin Hanna said in a statement. “This is a fantastic opportunity to hear about the works from the artists themselves, framed in an evening programmed to weave the works together. When faced with the inability to have a festival, we knew we had a unique opportunity. As piece by piece came together, Constantine [Baecher] and I grew more excited at the ability to weave a bit of dance history and education into the three evenings. For those who have never been to our festival, this year will reach around the world to showcase North Lake Tahoe as a stunning, beautiful backdrop for dance.”

The festival will take place over three days, with the Lake Tahoe Dance Collective presenting American Classical Ballet on July 22, Mid-Century Modern Dance on July 23, and Dance Now: Contemporary Works on July 23; each show will stream live at 9:00 and remain available for viewing for twenty-four hours. The festival will include archival and new works from such choreographers as Agnes de Mille, Jacopo Godani, Martha Graham, Marco Pelle, Paul Taylor, and Antony Tudor, with special guests Daniel Baudendistel, Ashley Bouder, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Kristin Draucker, Daphne Fernberger, Stephen Hanna, Lloyd Knight, and Wendy Whelan. You can get a taste of what to expect by checking out this preview discussion between Hanna and “Conversations on Dance” podcast hosts Michael Sean Breeden and Rebecca King Ferraro. There is a suggested donation of $25, as this is a benefit fundraiser; if you give more than $75, you get a festival T-shirt and commemorative wineglass.

Wednesday, July 22
American Classical Ballet: Agnes de Mille’s The Other with Stephen Hanna and Abi Stafford, Antony Tudor’s Jardin aux Lilas with members of the New York Theatre Ballet, Lauren Lovette’s Red Spotted Purple with Ashley Bouder, and George Balanchine’s Apollo with Adrian Danchig-Waring (filmed specifically for the festival), hosted by Christin Hanna and Constantine Baecher

Thursday, July 23
Mid-Century Modern Dance: Martha Graham’s Moon with Lloyd Knight and Wendy Whelan, Paul Taylor’s Cascade with Kristin Draucker, and Erick Hawkins’s Greek Dreams with Kristina Berger, hosted by Christin Hanna and Kristina Berger

Friday, July 24
Dance Now: Contemporary Works: Marco Pelle’s “T+I” with Stephen Hanna and Traci Finch, Jacopo Godani’s Al di Là with Ulysse Zangs and Daphne Fernberger, and Bryan Arias’s Notice with Arias and Rachel Fallon, hosted by Constantine Baecher and Marco Pelle