Tag Archives: MamLuft&Co. Dance

CINCINNATI, OHIO —  Cincinnati’s Modern Dance company MamLuft&Co. Dance announces an exciting and packed 10th Anniversary Season. ML&Co.’s 2016-2017 season includes two home performances reprising works from the past ten years, residencies at area universities, as well as numerous educational programs for the public.

MamLuft&Co. Dance has been a consistent and positive presence in the community since its founding in 2007.

The non-profit arts organization has worked to bring more arts experiences to Cincinnati (and beyond), focusing primarily on a form of lesser-known form of dance called Modern Dance. MamLuft&Co. Dance has served over 380 different zip codes (including 50 of Cincinnati’s 71), provided some form of aid to make dance education more affordable to roughly 67% of its students, created 14 new evening-length works and performed 33 different short works, created 2 dance films as well as 6 multi-media live works, and won 3 awards along the way from three different entities.
In its 10th anniversary season, 2016-2017, MamLuft&Co. Dance continues to serve the area through a number of programs throughout the year.

The Modern Dance company will offer two full evenings of repertory from its past ten years: first, November 9-12, 2016 in 5 of 10 at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center, and second, in Homecoming at the Aronoff Center for the Arts on May 5 and 6, 2017.

The company’s professional artists will also be seen in the Northern Kentucky University Dance ‘17 concert from March 31 – April 2, 2017, which will also feature NKU students dancing an ML&Co. work in conclusion of a year-long residency. (MamLuft&Co. Dance has also already conducted a residency at Kent State, whose students will be performing an ML&Co. work throughout the year.)

MamLuft&Co. Dance also offers a slew of programs for adults, teens, and children through its education and outreach program.

Classes include not only the company’s specialty, Modern Dance, but also Jazz Dance, Ballet, Musical Theatre, Tap Dance, and Kids Bop.

A full calendar of all these events and classes, including its highly popular summer programs, can be found at MLCo.org.

Coming up most quickly is MamLuft&Co. Dance’s 5 of 10 concert, which will take place Wednesday through Saturday, November 9-12 at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center.

The evening features five of the company’s favorites from 2007-2017 and will be performed in an intimate space that will feature a split-audience facing each other in halves. Audiences will see dance differently in this stimulating concert filled with a variety of powerful Modern Dance.

5 of 10 features the work of five area choreographers from across the country (from California to Massachusetts). The dance pieces are full of variety, excitement, and a range of captivating moments, from luscious to aggressive. The concert venue is so intriguing and unique as an intimate experience that in January 2016, when MamLuft&Co. Dance first converted the Clifton Cultural Arts Center into a dance performance space, that performance was sold out. The two co-producers, ML&Co. and CCAC, expect this concert to sell-out again.

In addition to its content and unusual set-up, 5 of 10 has three other special features.

First, the audience will be voting on an “audience pick” to be seen again in MamLuft&Co. Dance’s performance at the Aronoff Center in May.

Second, audiences are invited to attend a free post-show reception with drinks and light bites after Thursday evening’s concert. Third, audiences of Friday night’s performance are invited to a free question-and-answer talk-back session with ML&Co.’s talented dancers.

5 of 10 includes a carefully curated selection of pieces from the company’s past.

“Yesterday’s Wedding” (pictured above), which first premiered in 2008 (the company’s first season), has been reconfigured  by Jeanne Mam-Luft (founder and director). “Yesterday’s Wedding” is a sometimes-overlapping collection of portraits of six women who are reflecting on their relationships, the results of which turn out to include unexpected feelings such as unshakeable loneliness and sometimes mania.

“Intermittent Restraint” by Amy Querin of Fresno Dance Collective in California will make a reappearance since its premiere on ML&Co. in 2011: in this hard-hitting quartet, each performer’s “flight” is bound by being physically restrained to another with bungee cords. The effect and the dancers’ athleticism are fascinating.

From Betsy Miller of Salem, Massachusetts, dancer and Assistant Company Director, Susan Honer will perform a beautifully articulate solo entitled “Night Passage,” a journey that propels, drops, pulls, and floats through the night.

Honer herself also has a work in the show: “overthROW,” a section from the company’s evening-length work entitled Pieces (2012), which depicts a rumble within a fractured group.

Lastly, the company will reprise a company and audience favorite, “Under” by Sarah Gamblin of Denton, Texas: “Under” is a trio of short works, each a different expression of passion told through agile bodies and powerful vocals in the music.

Tickets to 5 of 10 are expected to sell-out, as did the concert’s equivalent from the previous year; the public is encouraged to book tickets early.

Audiences can take advantage of cheaper tickets for Wednesday and Thursday (November 9 and 10), in addition to 15% off all tickets purchased before November 1.

Tickets are available online at MLCo.org, by phone at (513) 497-2860, or in person at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center (3711 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220).

MamLuft&Co. Dance’s 10th Anniversary Season is made possible in part by small gifts from individual donors, the generosity of more than 40,000 contributors to the ArtsWave Community Campaign, and the Ohio Arts Council, who helps to fund this organization with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. The Summerfair Foundation and individual donations provided funding for the purchase of the dance flooring to be used in 5 of 10. 

More information about MamLuft&Co. Dance’s 10th Anniversary Season is available at MLCo.org.

CINCINNATI, OH — Cincinnati’s resident Modern Dance company, MamLuft&Co. Dance, announces the premiere of a new work titled DOUBLE|SIDED (Jan. 14-17). The performance opens MamLuft&Co. Dance’s ninth home season, “The Year of Doubles,” which also includes The Double (May 20-21).

DOUBLE|SIDED employs perspective, framing, a split audience, and the absence of a fourth wall — or any stage-defining walls, for that matter — to explore conflict and community.

The world premiere is presented in collaboration with the Clifton Cultural Arts Center, where MamLuft&Co. Dance is housed. The Clifton Cultural Arts Center is truly a regional Cultural Arts Center encompassing – and preserving – over 53,000 square feet of historically significant space in an urban campus. CCAC has welcomed over 150,000 visitors for an exhibit, concert, theater performance, civic function, or class since opening its doors in 2008. CCAC’s mission is to strengthen the critical link between participation in the cultural arts and successful, healthy children, adults, and communities. Created specifically for the grand auditorium in what was originally a schoolhouse built in 1906, DOUBLE|SIDED capitalizes on the architecture to create a unique experience for audiences.

In many ways, DOUBLE|SIDED presents dance in ways most people have never experienced.

Audiences will not only face each other, split in halves, but they will also be enveloped by the performance. Audiences can then uniquely experience — in remarkable proximity — the power of the performers in a way that is just not possible in large proscenium houses.

The performers also employ two moveable walls to create framing, obscure, reveal, build, and break-down. DOUBLE|SIDED pushes, pulls, encircles, collides, divides, and unifies. The experience, combined with daring athletic physicality, goes beyond engaging.

The new dance work opens eyes through its meaning, as well, using movement and staging as metaphors for communal division and harmony. Inspired by recent events and growing tensions in America, break-out choreographers Elena Rodriguez and Steven Evans explore individual and cultural presumptions and perspectives. The two choreographers premiere as headliners in this work and bring fresh artistry to the company of nine years.
Choreographer Steven Evans says, “We were drawn by many contemporary conflicts in our communities and our world…Our differences can either be used to stifle progress, or they can be used to find likeness and understanding. Our piece examines ourselves and our own prejudices. ”

Partner Elena Rodriguez says about the process of making DOUBLE|SIDED: “It was a very personal process that dug deep for Steven and me: we were forced to analyze our own biases and perspectives and take responsibility for our roles in creating social change. We asked the dancers to do the same and bring their own opinions and personal experiences to the table. We worked to create movement that we felt represented ourselves and then began creating a story about finding acceptance and understanding with others who are not like us or who may think differently. We wanted to build a piece that showed how volatile and aggressive human confrontation can be, as well as one that portrayed some of the beauty and understanding within true human connection.”

Premiering as Company dancers in this performance are McKenzie Barkdull (Salt Lake City, Utah), Christina Cairns (Farmington Hills, Michigan), and Amelia Koper Heintzelman (Muncie, Indiana).

Performances are Thursday through Sunday, January 14 through 17, 2016 (Thu./Sun. performances at 7pm at discounted rates, Fri./Sat. at 8pm). Tickets are available now at MLCo.org, at 513.494.MLCo (6526) M-F 11am-4pm, and at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center (3711 Clifton Ave, call 513-497-2860 for hours, as they vary). Tickets purchased before January 1 are 15% off.

Joined by cast of senior citizen extras

CINCINNATI, OHIO — Modern dance company MamLuft&Co. Dance premieres Memoriam (In Memory of Memory) at the Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater on Memorial Day weekend, Friday and Saturday, May 22 and 23, 2015 (8pm, tickets available now at cincinnatiarts.org, more information at MLCo.org/memoriam).

The company — recently named “Best Dance Company Pushing the Envelope” (2012) by CityBeat — is joined by a cast of extras comprised of senior citizens from the community.

CityBeat has also described MamLuft&Co. Dance as “intrepid” and “impressive” by, and the paper’s Kathy Valin calls Jeanne Mam-Luft “a brainy director and accomplished choreographer (and filmmaker).” Seen and Heard International’s Rafael de Acha describes the company’s work as “potent stuff,” “athletic,” and “pure.”

In MEMORIAM, the company and its senior guest performers embark on a journey through the mind, memories, and experiences of unnamed main characters portrayed by MamLuft&Co. Dance artists Steven Evans (originally from Cincinnati, Ohio) and Ms. Neile Martin (Memphis, Tenessee).

While MEMORIAM begins carefree and untroubled, the experiences of Mr. Evans and Ms. Martin’s characters take a foreboding turn when Ms. Martin begins to lose her memories (effectively, the experiences that have made her who she is). The succeeding loss is felt and echoed among the community, portrayed by a chorus of MamLuft&Co. Dance performers and aforementioned extras played by senior citizens from the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area.

Heightened by multi-media projections featuring authentic vintage home movies (dating back to a wedding in 1930s Netherlands) and depictions of stars-turned-memories-turned-brain-synpases, MEMORIAM is a bittersweet story about remembering and fading, memorializing and forgetting, and asking what we lose when we forget.

MEMORIAM (In Memory of Memory) is choreographed by Elena Rodriguez (Rehearsal Director originally from Queens, NY), Susan Honer (Choreographer from Roanoke, VA), and Jeanne Mam-Luft (Director/Choreographer from Dallas, TX), in collaboration with the performers Nicole Suzel (Texas/New Jersey/New York), Clint Fisher (Springfield, Ohio), Vivian Kim (Lincoln, Nebraska), and Delia Constantino (Zanesville, Ohio). The score is composed by long-time company friend and collaborator, Mike Wall (who works under the moniker, soundFORMovement), and lighting design is by Daniel Feith (who has worked with Pilobolus, Doug Varone and Dancers, Momix, Cincinnati Ballet, Dayton Ballet, and many other notable dance organizations).

MamLuft&Co. Dance gratefully acknowledges the operating support of the Ohio Arts Council, which helped fund this organization with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. Memoriam makes its premiere at the Aronoff Center, where MamLuft&Co. Dance is a resident company, and whose rent is subsidized by an award from The Greater Cincinnati Foundation. MamLuft&Co. Dance is also a resident company of the Clifton Cultural Arts Center with generous support from Mark McKillip. Memoriam is made possible through a Project Support Grant from ArtsWave. MamLuft&Co. Dance’s Outreach Program has been supported through a grant from The Summerfair Foundation, whose award will fund the purchase of a dance floor. Last, but not least, MamLuft&Co. Dance has been awarded funds from The Wohlgemuth-Herschede Foundation and The Louise Taft Semple Foundation in support of its Education and Outreach Programming for 2015-2016.