Treefrog In Stonehenge

Dancers in dress rehearsal. Photo by Grant Halverson.

ADF students in rehearsal and performance.

Dancers in dress rehearsal. Photo by Grant Halverson.

Dancers in rehearsal. Photo by Melissa Key.

Premiere

Date

26 July 2013

Company

American Dance Festival

Venue

Durham Performing Arts Center

Location

Durham, NC

Production

Choreographer

Twyla Tharp

Music by

David Kahne

Lighting Designer

David Ferri

Costume Designer

John Brinkman

Staged by

Rika Okamoto and Alexander Brady

Dancers

Paige Amicon, Kathryn Anderson, Rachelle Clark, Jonathan Doherty, Piper Dye, Lenin Fernandez, Xenja Füger, Kelsey Gerber, Julia Grubbs, Emily Jo Haenny, Mary Kate Hartung, Ben Ingel, Garret McCann, Emma Morrison, Emily Orillac, Samantha Speetjens

Understudies
Katie Burks, Caroline Carlton, Anna Hulse

Number of Dancers

16

Runtime

00:20:50

Description

In 1969, Tharp offered one of her first dance classes to students at the American Dance Festival. Since then, thousands of dancers have taken master classes, attended lecture/demonstrations or learned works from Tharp’s repertory, which are frequently taught in universities. Treefrog in Stonehenge brings Tharp’s endeavors in dance education full circle: it is her first work choreographed for students and premiered at the American Dance Festival.

David Kahne composed and recorded a constantly evolving soundscape that shifts in mood, rhythm and style in close coordination with the choreography. The dance combines phrases from two new technique classes – “Treefrog” and “Stonehenge” – with elements sampled from her early works. In one section, a group of dancers enters with a series of quick leaps and rolls while putting on and removing jackets, a combination of dance and pedestrian action that was first presented in Dancing in the Streets… (1969).

The piece highlights both the individual dancers’ strengths and personality as well as the sense of community that is fostered in a dance class.