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Varone, Axis, Barnes & COCo Headline 2010 Bates Dance Festival

LEWISTON, ME: The Bates Dance Festival announces its 28th season of public events, taking place July 10 through Aug. 7 on the Bates College campus.

The six-week festival showcases compelling performances by Monica Bill Barnes and Company, Doug Varone and Dancers, COCo Dance Theatre and Axis Dance Company. These contemporary dance companies create evocative works of virtuosity, insight, humor and cultural identity.
All told, the festival comprises performances, panel discussions and lectures by more than 30 internationally recognized dancers from across the United States and abroad.

Performance times and locations appear below. For information about tickets and event locations, and for additional performance details, visit the festival Web site: www.batesdancefestival.org.

Opening the 2010 season is the charming and witty Monica Bill Barnes & Company, one of the funniest, most imaginative groups to emerge on the New York dance scene in recent years. Barnes's zany dances exhibit an impressive combination of choreographic ingenuity, intellect and humor. They are brilliantly able to pull at your heartstrings in one moment and make you laugh out loud the next. Performances take place at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 10, at Bates College's Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

A recent recipient of the Choreographic Fellowship at The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Barnes has appeared in 30 cities throughout the United States and abroad, at venues including the International Fabbrica for Choreographers (Florence, Italy), fourth International Dance and Movement Festival on the Volga (Yaroslav, Russia), Tanz Festival (Karlsruhe, Germany), Sushi Performance and Visual Art (San Diego, Calif.), DancePlace (Washington, D.C.) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

For her Maine debut Monica Bill Barnes & Company presents "Another Parade," a go-for-broke, all-out dance event, set to music by James Brown, Tina Turner, Bach and Elvis that packs plenty of punch while somehow straddling the awkward and the debonair.

Next up is Doug Varone and Dancers. One of America's most gifted dance makers, Varone returns to Bates for his sixth creative residency since 1992 to perform stunning new works including "Lux," "Castles" and excerpts from his work in progress, "Chapters from a Broken Novel." Performances take place at 8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, July 15 and 17, in Bates College's Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

Since its founding in 1986, Varone's company has commanded attention for its expansive vision, versatility and technical prowess. On the concert stage, in opera, theater and on the screen, Varone's dances make essential connections and mine the complexity of the human spirit. From the smallest gesture to full-throttle bursts of movement, Varone's work can literally take your breath away. The New York Observer says, "Varone dancers are kinetically thrilling. They go all the way, both when they're in vivid, rushing motion and when they're in deep stillness."

Cynthia Oliver's COCo Dance Theatre incorporates the textures of Caribbean performance with African, and American, sensibilities. At Bates, Oliver presents her newest work, "Rigidigidim di Bamba: Ruptured Calypso," an evening-length, multidisciplinary work. Performances take place at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 23 and 24, in Bates College's Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

A meditation on transnationalism, "Rigidigidim" features eight women from the Caribbean diaspora. The piece moves between dance, text, sound and video to articulate the ways Caribbean people negotiate their "broken" identities within and outside the region of their "belonging." The project has received a prestigious National Dance Project touring grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts.

AXIS Dance Company, one of the world's most acclaimed and innovative ensembles of performers with and without disabilities, presents the Maine premieres of award-winning works by choreographers David Dorfman, Alex Ketley and Sonya Delwaide. Performances take place at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 30-31, in Bates College's Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

Founded in 1987, AXIS has become a jewel of contemporary dance and disability culture. AXIS has paved the way for a powerful contemporary dance form -- physically integrated dance -- performing in more than 60 cities nationwide, as well as in Europe and Siberia.

Under the artistic direction of Judith Smith, the company's list of collaborators read like a Who's Who of contemporary dance -- Bill T. Jones, Stephen Petronio, Joe Goode, Joanna Haigood, Victoria Marks, Ann Carlson, Margaret Jenkins, Sonya Delwaide, Meredith Monk, Fred Frith and Joan Jeanrenaud. AXIS has received seven Isadora Duncan Dance Awards.

Showcasing diverse styles and perspectives, the "Different Voices" concerts offer choreography by established and emerging artists from around the world. Performances take place at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Aug. 5 and 6, in Bates College's Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

On the program are new works by Mexican choreographers Claudia Lavista and Omar Carrum, artistic directors of the Delfos Danza Contemporanea. Recognized as one of the most important contemporary dance companies in Latin America, Delfos is known for a fully articulated, high-energy style, fast and free of constraint.

Mozambican choreographer Paniabra Gabriel Canda is known for his powerful and imaginative choreographic response to the ravages of war. Canda is the founder of CulturArte, a producing and training program based in Maputo. Also showcasing new work in his first U.S. appearance is Ethiopian dancer Shiferaw Tarikou.

Also represented are emerging choreographers Deborah Goffe, artistic director of Scapegoat Garden, an interdisciplinary dance/theater company based in Hartford, Conn.; and Quebecois choreographer Helen Simoneau, a recent winner of the first prize for choreography at the Internationales Solo-Tanz-Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany.

Along with the mainstage performances, the festival offers a variety of other events:
The annual "Musician's Concert," a global mix of music by 10 remarkable composers and musicians, takes place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 27, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall at Bates, 75 Russell St.

"Moving in the Moment," a spirited evening of improvisational dance by Chris Aiken and festival faculty, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 3, in Alumni Gymnasium, 130 Central Ave.

The "Festival Finale," featuring dancers of all ages and abilities performing modern, jazz, Middle Eastern and contemporary works by Foley, Young, Mejia and Lavista; and the festival's Youth Arts Eastern and contemporary works by Foley, Young, Mejia and Lavista and the festival's Youth Arts Program, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 7, also in Alumni Gymnasium.

The festival also offers a selection of free and low-cost events. "Global Exchange: Sharing Across Cultures," a panel discussion with international visiting artists, takes place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 22, in the Bates Chapel, 220 College St.

"Inside Dance: Understanding Contemporary Dance" is a series of lectures and post-performance talks led by Boston dance writer Debra Cash. Offering insight into the artists and their work, the lectures precede the Doug Varone and Dancers performance at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 17; the COCo Dance Theater performance at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 24; and the AXIS Dance Company performance at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 31. All lectures take place in Schaeffer Theater, 305 College St. Post-performance talks follow most Friday evening performances.

Founded in 1982 at Bates College, the Bates Dance Festival brings together an international community of contemporary dance choreographers, performers, educators and students in a cooperative community to study, perform and create new work. The festival serves as an annual destination for artists, students and audiences to engage in a full range of dance activities and performances that foster a creative exchange of ideas, encourage exploration of new ground and provide the opportunity to experience a wide spectrum of dance/movement disciplines.