Posted April 16, 2019
CONTACT: ANGELA WHITEHEAD
Communications & Media Manager
Dayton Performing Arts Alliance
Phone 937-224-3521 x1138
awhitehead@daytonperformingarts.org
CONTACT: Jay Peterson
Director of Marketing & Special Events
Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
Phone 937-228-3232 x113
jpeterson@dcdc.org
DAYTON, OHIO (April 16, 2019) – The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, under the leadership of Artistic Director and Conductor Neal Gittleman, is honored to be a part of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’s 50th anniversary celebration for a special DCDC Golden Anniversary Concert on Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 6:30 p.m. in the Schuster Center in downtown Dayton.
Together, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra will present a thrilling performance to honor DCDC’s 50th anniversary as the region’s outstanding modern dance company rooted in the African American experience. The evening’s performance will consist of three engaging pieces that celebrate the artistry and athleticism of the full DCDC company of dancers.
The first of the three pieces presented will be the World Premiere choreographed by former DCDC artistic director Kevin Ward. The new work is entitled and each day you mean one more and is set to brand-new music by composer and musician Derrick Spivey, Jr. and performed by the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Neal, Derrick and Kevin–conductor, composer, and choreographer–have worked closely together over the last several months to bring this work to life.
and each day you mean one more is partly inspired by the poem “The Low Road” by Marge Piercy, which addresses the challenges faced by the lone actor for societal good and how, with the gradual attraction and enlistment of like-minded individuals, a real force for change can be built that can resist destructive reactionary forces. In creating the dance, choreographer Kevin Ward was inspired by many lone actors such as Fanny Lou Hamer, David Hogg, Fred Rogers, James Baldwin, Malala Yousafzai, Claudette Colvin, and many nameless actors, such as the U.S. prisoners who staged a massive strike against systematic abuse, even though it resulted in the cruelest solitary confinement, and how their efforts inspired millions to follow suit.
DCDC will also perform a signature work from their history called Children of the Passage. This work was co-created for DCDC by world-renowned choreographer Ronald K. Brown and Tony-nominated choreographer Donald McKayle, who passed away just over a year ago this April. The work follows a party of decadent lost souls that are haunted and later rescued by spirits that reconnect them to their ancient and ancestral character. The composition is a cadence that is drawn from the traditional marching jazz bands of New Orleans, with the grind and groove of the contemporary jazz and soul music. The language of movements is translated from the visual poetry of African and African American dance and the celebration of cultural rituals of yesterday and today.
The third work on the program is American Mo’, created by choreographer and DCDC Associate Artistic Director Crystal Michelle Perkins. The dance is a celebration of triumph over adversity. Dancers express freedom, courage and joy to Duke Ellington’s “Three Black Kings,” composed in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This work originally premiered on September 19 and 20, 2015 as part of American Mosaic, Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Miriam Rosenthal Foundation for the Arts and was performed with accompaniment by Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra at the Schuster Center. DCDC has performed the innovative piece in New York City, Kazakhstan, and the Bolshoi in Moscow.
Directly following the concert, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company will hold their 50th Anniversary Gala from 8:30pm to midnight at Kettering Tower (now Stratacache Tower) – featuring an evening of great food, music, dancing and more. You can be a part of this landmark anniversary by calling Jay Peterson, 937-228-3232.
Join DCDC and the DPO for a night of celebration of dance and community in the performing arts in Dayton!
Tickets for DCDC Golden Anniversary Gala Concert begin at $15.50 and are available for purchase by calling Ticket Center Stage at (937) 228-3630 or online at www.daytonperformingarts.org. For more information on the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance, including by Dayton Philharmonic, Dayton Opera and Dayton Ballet, visit www.daytonperformingarts.org. For more information on Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, visit www.dcdc.org.
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About Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
Founded in 1968 by the late Jeraldyne Blunden, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) is the oldest modern dance company in Ohio. DCDC serves as a cultural ambassador to Dayton, the state of Ohio, the Midwest, and the nation. The company holds the world’s largest archive of classic African American dance works and one of the largest of any kind among contemporary dance companies worldwide. Noteworthy choreographers who have worked with the company include Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, Donald Byrd, Bill T. Jones, José Limón, Donald McKayle, Ray Mercer, Bebe Miller, Doug Varone, and Kevin Ward.
DCDC tours locally, nationally and internationally, including Bermuda, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, and South Korea. In August 2012, the company performed at the grand opening of University of Dayton’s China Institute at the Suzhou Industrial Park in Jiangsu Province, China.
DCDC was a co-recipient of the 2016 Bessie Award (The New York Dance and Performance Awards) for Outstanding Revival for performing Donald McKayle’s 1959 masterwork “Rainbow Round My Shoulder.” Ray Mercer’s 2017 commissioned work, “This I Know For Sure…,” has been selected as one the best examples of new American contemporary dance being shared with international presenters in Pitchbook: Volume IV, a publication by American Dance Abroad.
Most recently the company represented the U.S. with its tour in Kazakhstan and Russia in May 2018 as part of the 2017–2018 season of DanceMotion USA, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. Brooklyn Academy of Music produces the program to facilitate cultural exchange while showcasing the best in contemporary American dance abroad.
About the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance
The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance was formed in July 2012 as the result of a groundbreaking and innovative merger between the Dayton Ballet, the Dayton Opera, and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Together, they are the largest performing arts organization in the community, offering a tremendous variety of performance and education programs and setting a new standard for artistic excellence. Dayton Performing Arts Alliance performances are made possible in part by Montgomery County and Culture Works, the single largest source of community funds for the arts and culture in the Miami Valley. The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance also receives partial funding from the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency created to foster and encourage the development of the arts and to preserve Ohio’s cultural heritage. Funding from the Ohio Arts Council is an investment of state tax dollars that promotes economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohio residents. In 2013, The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance was thrilled to be one of five performing arts organizations in the country selected to receive a three-year “Music Alive” grant from New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras. The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance is the proud recipient of a 2017-2018 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.