La Femme Dance Festival Set For Late March
La Femme Dance Festival Set For Late March
By Tia Carol Jones
Red Clay Dance Company will host its La Femme Dance Festival from March 26th through the 28th, with its culminating dance performance set to take place at 7;30 p.m. Saturday, March 28th, at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, located at 205 E. Randolph St. This is the fifth year for the biennial festival, which was developed by Vershawn Sanders-Ward, Founding Artistic Director and CEO of Red Clay Dance Company.
Sanders-Ward said the purpose and intention behind the La Femme Dance Festival, from the beginning, was to show the diversity of artistic and creative work, by Black women choreographers. With the festival, Sanders-Ward wanted to elevate the diversity in Black women’s voices, what they have to say, what they are making work about, as well as the type of work Black women choreographers are doing in dance.
Sanders-Ward said the Red Clay Dance Company is excited to welcome two guest choreographers to La Femme Dance Festival this year. The event will feature performances by Syncopated Ladies and choreographer Chloé Arnold and Kia Smith, Founder, Director of Vision and Strategy, and Resident Choreographer for the South Chicago Dance Theatre. Smith was a member of the Red Clay Dance Company and went on to establish South Chicago Dance Theatre.
The Red Clay Dance Theatre will present two works created by Sanders-Ward and one by Rena Butler, a Chicago native who works in New York and internationally. Sanders-Ward described it as a really exciting program, and while the event continues to feature Black women choreographers, she said she is excited to elevate the work of Chicagoans and to show their work on a global stage.
“We all had our beginnings here in Chicago, but have gone on to present our work nationally and internationally,” she said.
Sanders-Ward said that she is always looking for ways to bring other forms of dance connected to the African Diaspora onto the concert dance stage. She was excited to bring a tap performance to the festival this year. She said she believes that the Chicago audience is going to love the Syncopated Ladies’ performance. Sanders-Ward said that she had been following Butler’s work since she was at the Hubbard Street Dance and was interested in her movement vocabulary, her physicality, but also her grace. She said she was curious to see that work on the dancers of Red Clay.
Sanders-Ward said that Red Clay Dance Company’s work is rooted in Diasporic vocabulary and Afro contemporary and the dancers are trained across many different styles. She knew because of that, the dancers would be able to handle Butler’s vocabulary. She is excited to see that form of expression on Red Clay’s dancers. With Smith, her work is unique and she is establishing herself as a choreographer in the field of dance. Sanders-Ward wanted to bring Smith’s perspective into the performance.
“We tell our stories in many different ways and modalities, and I believe that this concert will give the audience a breadth of what our creative processes and practices look like as Black women choreographers,” Sanders-Ward said. She added that she hopes that the event will encourage more support of Black creatives’ work.
In addition to the March 28th performance, there will be a masterclass with Butler at the Red Clay Dance Company’s center, located at 808 E. 63rd St., on Friday, March 27th. Advance registration is required for that event. Chloé Arnold’s Syncopated Ladies Empowerment Camp will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 29th, at Red Clay Dance Center. Dancers from all ages and levels are invited to join. The camp is presented by the Chloé and Maud Foundation in partnership with Red Clay Dance Company. Registration for the camp is $200 per student.
For more information about the Red Clay Dance Company and to purchase tickets to the La Femme Dance Festival, visit www.redclaydance.com.
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