Performances
Old Fashioned Morphine
Preformers: Julie Brown and Amanda Gruhl from Boston, MA
Choreography: Julie Brown and Amanda Gruhl
Music: Old Fashioned Morphine by Rising Appalachia
Performing Saturday Late Night Dance, 1:30am
This original piece, collaboratively choreographed by Amanda Gruhl and Julie Brown, blends elements from blues and contemporary dance styles, while exploring the dark and cyclical nature of addiction. It received 1st place in the Showcase competition at Bambloozled 2010.
St. Louis Blues
Performers: Shawn Hershey and Amanda Gruhl from Boston, MA
Choreography: Shawn Hershey and Amanda Gruhl
Music: St. Louis Blue by W. C. Handy, performed by Kid Ory
Performing Friday Late Night Dance, 1:30am
"St. Louis Blues" is an American popular song composed by W. C. Handy. First played and published in 1914, it was a huge hit, and one of thefirst blues songs to succeed as a pop song. When it was written, the one-step and related dances were done to blues music, but the tango was the new rage. Handy combined the standard twelve-bar blues with elements of ragtime and tango (also called "Spanish Tinge"), hoping to give the dancers something new. He said the first time it was played, "My eyes swept the floor anxiously, then suddenly I saw lightning
strike. The dancers seemed electrified. Something within them came suddenly to life. An instinct that wanted so much to live, to fling its arms, to spread joy, took them by the heels." We are hoping our performance will recreate, as historically as possible, the exhilaration that he saw on the floor.
Barrelhouse Blues
Performers: Dexter Santos and Heidi Fite from San Francisco, CA
Choreography: Katherine Dunham, 1938
Music: Barrelhouse Blues by Jess Stacy
Performing Saturday Late Night Dance, 1:30am
If you don't know the work of anthropologist and choreographer Katherine Dunham, Dexter and Heidi look forward to making an introduction. In this piece of choreography from her 1938 work, Barrelhouse Blues, Ms. Dunham incorporated vernacular dances (like the Slow drag, the Mooche, and the Shimmy) common to the juke joints and honky-tonks of the day in order to introduce them to a larger audience and build appreciation for in a modern dance context. Some critics called her work an "incredible vulgarity", but we're sure that you will not only recognize many of the moves you learned in classes this weekend, but appreciate them as essential components of the blues dance art form.
Hell Hound Blues
Choreography: Devona Cartier
Music: Killin Floor by Howlin Wolf
Performing Friday Late Night Dance, 1:30am
Preformers:
- Joshua Boroff
- Julie Brown
- Naomi Choodnovskiy
- Megan Damon
- Sylvia Lessa
- Jenn Martinez
- Andrew Matteson
- Kevin Sihlanick
- Stephen York
