Dancing Wheels 40th anniversary season includes choreography by Alice Blumenfed
First, Fierce, and For Everyone!
Abrepaso Flamenco’s artistic director, Alice Blumenfeld, choreographed a flamenco-inspired piece for the first wheelchair integrated dance company this past year, and the new work, El alba, premieres as part of their 40th anniversary celebration.
You can celebrate four decades of integrated dance with the company that started it all June 24th at Severance Hall in Cleveland, OH.
About the piece: When I started looking for music for this piece, I stumbled across the first song, and immediately saw images of sunset in my mind and connected that to the use of the abanico (fan). The piece starts at dusk, moves through the night, and ends at sunrise, a metaphor for moving through difficult times. The middle piece is a farruca, and I worked with the idea that there is much going on at night, even in the stillness, the world is active and even in our sleep our dreams can be more intense than reality. The final piece is a Sevillana, a traditional folk dance done at the Spring fair in Sevilla. The dancers learned the traditional Sevillana choreography, and for the piece, we created a Dancing Wheels version. Just as this dance is used to celebrate the coming of Spring after Winter, in this piece, it represents the arrival of the sun and a new day.
I so enjoyed working with the dancers, and was amazed at the choreographic possibilities that open up working with seated and standing dancers together - the possibilities are endless! Mary Verdi-Fletcher is a force of nature and what she has done for dance is quite extraordinary!
Join Dancing Wheels for a gala celebration including:
Reprises of beloved works of the nation’s FIRST physically integrated dance company
Pop-up appearances of FIERCE company alumni
Messages and proclamations applauding the dance company that has made dance accessible For Everyone
Schedule of Events
6:30 p.m. VIP pre-party featuring hors d’oeuvres and cocktails
8:00 p.m. Dance performance
9:30 p.m. Champagne & celebrations continue
For more info and tickets: https://dancingwheels.org/40-years/