LIU Brooklyn, Kumble Theater
Long Island University
Flatbush Ave. between DeKalb Ave. & Willoughby St.
May 10-12, $30
718-488-1624
www.kumbletheater.org
www.danceiquail.org
Dancer, choreographer, and teacher Iquail Shaheed formed Dance Iquail (DIQ) five years ago as a way to use movement-based performance “to create and present programs that confront the destructive and divisive nature of racism, sexism, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, unmet needs of the poor, and the importance of family support and unity.” Inspired by his own childhood in which he experienced many of those elements, including LGBT bullying, Shaheed, who was born and raised in Philadelphia and currently lives in Harlem, has staged such original pieces as Together We Stand, Commonalities That Bind Us, and Equality for Us 2 as well as Melvin Purnell’s Someday We’ll All Be Free and Christopher Ralph’s Night Falls. DIQ is opening its fifth anniversary season this weekend at the Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn with a quartet of works, including two world premieres. Shaheed’s The Order (2011) features circular motion set to an original score by Dylan Ezzie, with the dancers (Shaheed, Allison Sale, Morgan Anderson, Winston D. Brown, Adrianne Chu, Harumi Elders, Ryan Houston, Randall Riley, and Elizabeth Washington) wearing Jessie Durham’s long, flowing costumes; Shaheed was inspired by a 1970 quote from Pablo Feirer’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed: “For the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of oppression, not as a closed world from which there is no exit, but as a limiting situation which they can transform.” DIQ will also present the company premiere of Thread by choreographer and TCU associate professor of ballet Elizabeth Gillaspy, which examines the unraveling quality of life, set to Texas minimalist ensemble Balmorhea’s “The Winter.” The two world premieres are Ralph’s Inward Flux, which enters a dreamlike state, and Shaheed’s Sweet Surrender, in which three couples take part in an intimate battle of the sexes. DIQ will be back July 20, when they will present works by Ralph, Shaheed, and Amber Perkins at Queensbridge Park as part of SummerStage, preceded by an Open Dance Master Class led by Karisma Jay.