20MOONS Dance Theater has some big questions for us to think about.
In its latest production, “Cloud Bridge Arriving,” its first live show in three years, six dancers will be accompanied in their performance space by two musicians.
“Cloud Bridge Arriving” will be performed this weekend and next at Stillwater in Durango – a new venue for the company.
“Right now, it’s a space that we’ve converted into somewhat of a production space,” said Co-Artistic Director Jessica Perino. “It’ll be set up in the round, so the audience will be sitting in a circle around the performance space and we’ll dance in the center.”
The production seeks to try to begin to make sense of all we’ve experienced in the last few years, said Anne Bartlett, co-artistic director.
“We dance from our own experience of whatever the moment is – that’s what we create from. We’re really into creating an authentic experience of what we’re all experiencing right now in the world,” Bartlett said. “That’s basically what it’s based on is this – stuff’s happening in the world and it’s upsetting and disturbing and feels unsettled and chaotic at times, and how do we make sense of that? And how do we make sense of where are we going from here? And so the show is based sort of on that idea of taking where we are right now and trying to project where we’re going and maybe some why, or some meaning for what we’re experiencing and where we’re going.”
If you go
What: 20MOONS Dance Theater presents “Cloud Bridge Arriving.”
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday (April 15) and Saturday and April 22 and 23.
Where: Stillwater, 1316 Main Ave., Ste. C.
Tickets: $25, available online at https://bit.ly/3O6rYHD.
More Information: Visit www.20moons.com.
Like just about everything else in Durango at the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, 20MOONS had to put aside plans for spring 2020, but that doesn’t mean the company stopped working together, Perino said.
“We had a show planned for May 2020, and that obviously got interrupted,” she said. “We’ve been moving together the whole time; we haven’t taken a break – we made a film, and we had a community offering last summer, which was really amazing, like a participatory show/event. But this is our first real production that we’ve had since 2019.”
And while the company has continued to work together throughout the weird last few years, Perino said everyone is eager to get back in front of an audience.
“We’ve very excited to just engage with the community again,” she said. “We’ve been together, which has been really nourishing and important through all of the waves of ever-changing landscape that’s been happening. We’ve been together, but we haven’t been with the larger community in the way that we all know how, to connect with people through our movement and our creation. So we’re excited to reconnect in that way and to just bring – I know it’s already happening, but to continue the return of live performance to town. And to bring dance back into the world – away from the screen and into real-life experience.
katie@durangoherald.com
