Art Notes: Dance shows, festivals fill schedule

About 10 years ago, during a graduate seminar, I uttered the words “I’m curious about dance” as I introduced myself to my cohort. I was reading a lot of Jill Johnston at the time and was fascinated by her hybrid form of journalistic dance criticism. In the late 1960s, Johnston was a dance critic for the Village Voice, and her experimental writings on dance and performance art exemplified how an author could transmit her curiosity through her writing. I was surprised to hear myself, as I’d never articulated that sentiment before … but there it was, “I’m curious about dance.”

Those words remain true. In fact, it’s rare that I don’t tear up the moment a piece begins. The unmediated vulnerability of a body carving through space in real time hits an emotional register that painting, sculpture or photography seldom can.

From Thursday through Sunday, anyone with a fleeting curiosity or an abiding passion for dance can experience it live, or in workshops and on film, at the Junction Dance Festival, held at venues across downtown White River Junction.

The festival opens Thursday with “Tell Me How You Breathe” by the Loom Ensemble, a New York-based dance-theater collective. This new work was developed over the last year and features five core Loom members who are joined by an ensemble of performers from across the Upper Valley. Complete with costumes made from recycled materials and props made from locally sourced wood from fallen trees, “Tell Me How You Breathe” is eco-activism enacted through movement, song, dance and spoken word.

“The natural elements we use are a way of centering eco-justice in our process, not just in the stories we tell,” Raphael Sacks, co-director of the Loom Ensemble, said in an interview. The collective has been involved in the Vermont dance community for about seven years, and the Junction Dance Festival is an extension of a long-standing artistic relationship with the Upper Valley.

After the festival, “Tell Me How You Breathe” is slated travel to city parks in Montpelier, Massachusetts and upstate New York, though the first destination is in doubt. The tour is made possible by a grant from the New England Foundation of the Arts. Tickets are $20, and performances will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday at Lyman Point Park with a rain date scheduled for July 17.

On Saturday, at 7:30 p.m., Briggs Opera House will host an interdisciplinary dance concert featuring a broad spectrum of solo and ensemble works. Tickets are $20. For all paid performances, free or reduced-price, need-based tickets are available at the box office the day of the event.

In addition to the performances, the festival includes a robust roster of free beginner and intermediate workshops ranging from ballet to baroque to contemporary. The festival organizers have created programming for all ages and abilities, including workshops for toddlers and seniors. Family dance events will be open to children and parents and the Bugbee Senior Center will host events for seniors.

“We want the community to really experience dance, not just watch,” Elizabeth Kurylo, founder of the festival said in an interview.

ChoreoLab is a year-long dance and movement residency hosted by the Barn, a dance studio and performance space in Corinth. The program offers financial and institutional support to dancers and choreographers who are generally early in their career. This year’s participants, Amanda Whitworth, Chloe Schafer and Claire Cook, will showcase new work during the festival. ChoreoLab performances are happening at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Briggs Opera House, and tickets are $20.

“I think ChoreoLab is the root of the festival,” said Kurylo.

Amanda Whitworth will present “Dragging I,” a self described “first draft of a big idea.”

Whitworth worked with collaborator Vivian Beer to create the piece, which centers around a large kinetic sculpture that will be tethered to Whitworth’s body. The work is an interdisciplinary piece that combines movement, sculpture and performance art. “We hope it evokes emotion … and conveys a visceral, cathartic audience experience … the festival is a great place to test our ideas,” Whitworth said in an interview.

Chloe Schafer and Claire Cook will present a 12-minute improvisational piece that foregrounds the politics of dueting and the attendant power dynamics that ensue when two dancers share the stage. Schafer is currently based in New York but has roots in Vermont and has been involved in the New England dance community for years. “I follow my intuition, and I use a lot of synchronization, sometimes falling into mirroring, sometimes merging into one,” Schafer said of her process. Cook, who grew up in Bradford, Vt., joins Schafer as dancer. “Chloe has a specific vision and a good eye for detail … it was a fun challenge to match that energy,” said Cook.

New this year will be a partnership with Junction Arts & Media (JAM). The Vermont Dance Alliance will curate a selection of dance films to be screened at JAM for the duration of the festival. On July 8, dance artist Ellen Smith Ahearn, and MC DeBelina Doyle, executive director of the Vermont Dance Alliance presented “Listening Together: Intergenerational Dance Film Workshop,” in which youth and seniors participated in movement activity aimed at fostering an appreciation for dance and sense of community across generations. Excerpts from the workshop, which was sponsored by the Norwich Lions Club, will be made into a short film that will be screened at JAM during the festival.

“Kids and elders are traditionally underrepresented, so we’re interested in making space for them and bearing witness to their interaction,” said Ahearn. Additional films include “Your Eyes Need Tears to Work Correctly,” by DeBelina Doyle; Ahearn’s “Clear Creek”; “We Remember” by Elizabeth Kurylo; Andreas John’s “Table” (inspired by festival veteran Hannah Dennison’s “Quarry Project”), and more.

Dance has never ceased to pique my interest, and the Junction Dance Festival promises to be a site of inquiry, delight and joy. As the great Jill Johnston wrote in 1967, “Probably the world is too sure of its things. I like things that are certain about not being very sure about what they are.” Stay curious, friends!

The Junction Dance Festival will take place at multiple venues throughout downtown White River Junction from July 13 to 16. For a full calendar of events visit thejunctiondancefestival.org. For accessibility services, contact Hailey Swett by email at hailey@swett.net.

Eric Sutphin is a freelance writer. He lives in Plainfield.