ADG Performance Festival 2012

ADG Performance Festival 2012 presents 32 artists from around the globe along with tributes to two modern masters.

The American Dance Guild’s annual performance festival offers a unique view of the rich diversity of contemporary modern dance. The Opening Night Gala on September 6, 2012 celebrated two highly distinguished leaders of modern dance, Elaine Summers and Dianne McIntyre.

Ms. Summers presented “Windows in the Kitchen,” a 1976 intermedia work with Douglas Dunn performing live with composer/performer Jon Gibson, alongside dancer Matt Turney on film. Presented on Thursday and Friday.

Ms. McIntyre presented “Life’s Force,” a signature work of Sounds in Motion, the first company she formed in NYC in 1972 which became known for innovative work in dance and live music. Jazz trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah lead the band and a cast of 12-20 members old and new who joined in this celebratory reunion performance to mark the 40th anniversary of Sound in Motion Presented on Thursday and Saturday.

Other highlights included John Pennington (virtuosic Bella Lewitzky soloist now running his own company in Pasadena, CA) performing “Dances Before God “ of Harald Kreutzberg, the legendary German dancer whose performance galvanized both Jose Limon and Erick Hawkins to pursue professional dancing; Molissa Fenley performing a duet “100 Vessels;” and Joseph Mills in “Circlewalker”, performing a breathtaking solo with moving sculpture.

The Festival boasted a host of artists from emerging to mid-career reflecting the ADG’s unique position as both promoter of the new and preserver of the living history of Modern Dance as an art form.

Each evening in the lobby videos of works by Elaine Summers and Dianne McIntyre were shown.

This festival was a celebration of the dancers of the present, a savoring of the accomplishments of the past, and a look into the future!  Elaine Summers, MA, (Fulbright Fellow, MIT Fellow) has been an innovator since the 60’s as a choreographer, teacher, filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist. She was an original member of the workshop that spawned the Judson Dance Theater and realized her first intermedia performance in 1962 called Split Screen & By Chance Dance & Film.  Some know her as the person who filmed Trisha Brown walking on the walls of the Guggenheim. She founded the Experimental Intermedia Foundation which drew attention to the new form of intermedia with emphasis on the interrelationship between film and dance. She has developed a dizzying array of intermedia performances in her career, such as “Crow’s Nest” which premiered at the Guggenheim Museum in 1980, and “Energy Changes” at MOMA in 1973. She originated the movement approach Kinetic Awareness™ through which she develops and researches the kinetic arts and sciences, and has trained dancers and non-dancers alike. Her project, Skytime™, was a web-based Concept Artwork that invited the entire world to celebrate the sky together in any relatable medium. Her work is being archived at the Jerome Robbins Dance Collection of the NY Public Library at Lincoln Center.

Dianne McIntyre has been an inspirational force in modern dance for 4 decades, as a performer, choreographer, and teacher through work for stage, film and television. The short list of her awards include: John S. Guggenheim Fellowship, 3 Bessie Awards, Helen Hayes Award (DC Theatre), 2 AUDELCOS (NY Black Theatre), American Dance Festival 2008 Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching, 2009 Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts/SUNY, 2010 Creative Workforce Fellowship, 2012 The Ohio State University College of Arts and Science Distinguished Alumni Award, Cleveland Arts Prize. Besides choreography for her own ensembles Diane McIntyre has created work for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Cleo Parker Robbins Ensemble, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Foundworks, Dayton Contemporary, and many university companies. Most recently she choreographed Ntozake Shange’s “why I had to dance” at Oberlin College and Playhouse Square in 2011. In 2009 and 2010 Dianne McIntyre performed her solo “If You Don’t Know…” for 651 Arts presentation FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance. The Brooklyn performance and four- city tour also featured Carmen de Lavallade, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Bebe Miller and Germaine Acogny. Dianne’s first company Sounds in Motion celebrates 40 years this year!