Our 2024/2025 Season: Unfiltered got off to an exciting start with our fall mixed repertory performance, Beyond the Surface! Held at our Center for Dance, this energetic and eclectic program consisting of three unique contemporary works provided a thought-provoking and artistic experience for audience members. The intimate setting of our black box theater allows for a whole new perspective as a viewer, and a personal feel to the performance.
If you were unable to join us, here’s what you missed!
Balúm
Choreographed by Omar Román De Jesús
Omar Román De Jesús is a queer Puertorriqueño choreographer and the director of the NYC-based dance company Boca Tuya. Currently, he is a proud Artist in Residence at 92NY. Omar is the inaugural Baryshnikov Arts Center Fellow at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park and a 2023 Dance Magazine Harkness Promise Awardee. His accolades include the 2022 Princess Grace Award in Choreography, the 2022 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography, the 2022 Palm Desert Choreography Festival Grand Prize, and the 2020 Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow.
In his world premiere piece set to a mesmerizing, ambient score, Omar created a thoughtful and magical world that invited audiences along for the journey. Our dancers became individualized characters, interacting and intertwining through a seamless flow of movement inspired by the ways in which breath connects us and leads us through our lives as human beings. With its fluid movement, stunning special effects, beautiful music and intriguing storyline, audience members of all ages and interests could find something within this piece to enjoy.
HdrM
Choreographed by Jennifer Archibald
Toronto-born Jennifer Archibald is the founder and Artistic Director of the Arch Dance Company and Program Director of ArchCore40 Dance Intensives. Archibald has choreographed for the Ailey II, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet West, Grand Rapids Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, and BalletX among others. Jennifer first choregraphed her fan-favorite piece, HdrM, for our Company Dancers in 2023, and we were thrilled to welcome her back to Charlotte! In her 2023 debut of HdrM, Jennifer Archibald included the below question for audiences to think about as they watched.
“Is there a social responsibility to humanize architecture? Robert Sommer’s ‘Tight Spaces; Hard Architecture and How to Humanize It,’ explores environmental psychology. The spaces we occupy influence more than mental health.”
The above idea can provide context and meaning to the sharp shapes and steps that interweave throughout Archibald’s work. Dancers lift and manipulate the space of others around them, and play with quality of movement along the way. Set to three strong and guiding scores, including music by Federico Albanese, Ludwig Ronquist and Heilung, audiences are pulled into the piece and locked in from the very first movement to the final moments before the curtain falls.
Vibes and Variations
Choreographed by Mthuthuzeli November
Mthuthuzeli November is an award-winning choreographer and dancer born in Cape Town, South Africa, who has created works around the world with The Washington Ballet (USA), Northern Ballet (UK), Luzerner Theatre (Switzerland), Cape Town City Ballet (SA), Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance (UK), Ballet Central (UK) and The Grange Festival (UK). Other projects include work for The Chemical Brothers, Sanlam Bank South Africa and British singer Adam Hender. We were lucky enough to have him create a brand new work for our Company just last fall, entitled From Africa With Love. From that time spent in the studios together, it was clear that Mthuthuzeli and our dancers formed a special connection that allowed for vulnerability and playful discoveries in the choreographic process.
With his return to Charlotte came an impactful and memorable new work called Vibes and Variations. Mthuthuzeli made it known that with this work, his goal was to create something that he enjoyed and that the dancers had fun performing. Some of the women opted into wearing pointe shoes, while others chose to remain on flat foot, a decision Mthuthu left up to the dancers. This finale number included a number of solos, duets, trios as well as large group moments. With a mix of energetic and upbeat music, some audience members were dancing along in their seats! Rounding out our performance series, this piece was the perfect note to end on and left us all with a smile, and perhaps a new appreciation for dance.
