Jane Comfort: S/He (Excerpt, 1995) &
Underground River (Excerpts, 1998)

S/He (Video Excerpt, 1995)

Performers: Jane Comfort and Andre Shoals

Lighting Design: Walter Rutledge

Underground River (Excerpts, 1998)

Choreography: Jane Comfort

Music: Toshi Reagon

Puppet and Visual Elements: Basil Twist

Text: Jane Comfort

Costumes: Liz Prince

Lighting Design: Walter Rutledge

Performers: Leslie Cuyjet, Sean Donovan, Cynthia Svigals, Petra van Noort

Jane Comfort is a choreographer, writer, and director who recently celebrated 40 years of creating dance/theater works with a retrospective concert produced by La MaMa in association with Lumberyard. Her work has long explored the intersection of movement and text, often mixing high and low arts to make social and political commentary. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, two BESSIE Awards, a Doris Duke Award for New Work through ADF, a Habey Award for distinguished service to the arts from the University of North Carolina, and multiple artist fellowships from the NEA, NY State Council on the Arts, and NY Foundation for the Arts. She also works in theater and opera, and choreographed the Broadway musicals Passion, by Stephen Sondheim, and Amour, by Michel Legrand, as well as Shakespeare in the Park's Much Ado About Nothing (2004), the Off-Broadway musical Wilder at Playwrights Horizons, and Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Salome with Deborah Voigt. Jane is on the Artistic Advisory Board of Lumberyard, and has been on the board of The Field since 1998.

Jane Comfort and Company has pioneered the possibilities of multidisciplinary dance since the '70s with dance/theater works that have been produced in the United States, Europe and Latin America. The company has been presented by such venues as TEDxEast, Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theater, La MaMa, PS 122, Danspace Project, Dance Theater Workshop, and Off Broadway at Classic Stage Company in New York City, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, New Orleans' Contemporary Art Center, NC State Live, Wesleyan University, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The American Center in Paris, Antwerp's de Singel Theater, the International Festival of Londrina, Brazil and many theaters and colleges across the US.  janecomfortandcompany.org

Eleo Pomare: Radeau(Raft) & Hex

Radeau (Raft) (1996)

Choreography: Eleo Pomare

Reconstructed by: Enrique Cruz DeJesus, Artistic Director, Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company

Music Collage: Johnathan Kabak

Music Resources: Steve Reich, Echoes of Nature, and Samite of Uganda

Costumes: Eleo Pomare

Lighting Design: Walter Rutledge

Performers: Donna Clark, Shauntee Henry, Jinah Parker (Members of the Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company)

Hex

Choreography: Eleo Pomare

Music: Harry Partch

Lighting Design: Walter Rutledge

Performer: Dyane Harvey

"Possessed by an evil spell. Delusions of persecution."

Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company was founded in 1972 with the primary mission of expanding opportunities to provide a platform for multi-cultural choreographers and dance artists and is an example of the best of the American melting pot. The dances range from urban life to that of tribal influence, from the abstract to the dramatic. Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company's directors have all had a long association with the late master choreographer Eleo Pomare. All current and past directors have worked with him as company members and Mr. Pomare was a mentor to the company. Alpha Omega founders, the late Ronn Pratt and Dolores Vanison-Blakely, were among the first in the 1960s and 70s, followed by interim artistic directors, Andy Torres and Martial Roumain. Current artistic and associate directors, Enrique Cruz DeJesus and Donna Clark, respectively, also worked closely with Mr. Pomare to reconstruct and remount several of his works. Alpha Omega has had the distinct pleasure of performing Mr. Pomare's Radeau, Hex, Blues for the Jungle, Tabernacle, Out of the Storm, Las Desenamoradas and Narcissus Rising. The company performs the work often and proudly honors and celebrates Eleo Pomare whose choreography reflects his international experiences and broad humanistic perspective. For more information, please visit: alphaomegadance.org

This performance is in loving memory of our executive director, mentor, and friend, Dolores Vanison-Blakley who passed on August 10, 2018. We miss her dearly, but will honor her legacy and carry the torch to continue her life's work at Alpha Omega.

Dyane Harvey is a 2017 BESSIE AWARD winner and founding member of Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Company, whose mission is the preservation of this planet and the empowerment of our audiences. She has performed with the Eleo Pomare Dance Company, touring the United States, Italy, Australia and Lagos, Nigeria as U.S. representative of F.E.S.T.A.C. (the Second Black and African Festival of Art and Culture). Eleo Pomare is responsible for shaping her approach to movement and theatricality. In 2009, she reconstructed Roots and Hex as part of The Black Dance Project at the Centre National de la Danse in Paris. She performed with George Faison's Universal Dance Experience, Walter Nicks Dance Theatre, Otis Sallid's New Art Ensemble, Dance Brazil, Trinidad Repertory Dance Theatre, and Contemporary Chamber Dance Theatre.

Eleo Pomare (1937-2008) was born in Cartagena, Colombia and was the Artistic Director of the Eleo Pomare Dance Company for more than forty years. Mr. Pomare is widely recognized for his artistic contribution to American dance. He gained a reputation for portraying the black experience with bold honesty and searing political and emotional insight. Three of his works have been documented by the American Dance Festival as masterworks, and archived as important achievements by African-American choreographers.

In addition to maintaining his own company, Mr. Pomare choreographed works for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company, The Maryland Ballet Company, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, the Cleo Parker-Robinson Dance Company (Denver) Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company, the National Ballet of Holland, Ballet Institute (Oslo, Norway) the Australian Contemporary Dance Company, and the Ballet Palacio des Artes (Velo Horizonte, Brazil) and the Cincinnati Ballet. Mr. Pomare was a Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of numerous other awards, including a John Hay Whitney fellowship and recognition as one of the New Voices of Harlem. He was an alumnus of the High School for Performing Arts, served on the Executive Planning Committee of the International Association of Blacks in Dance, and on the Advisory Board of the American Dance Festival.