AN ODYSSEY IN DANCE
There is more dancing going on in L.A. than ever, but it’s difficult to discover these great little companies, as they have short runs and — being financially constrained — a short outreach. By offering its 4th annual Dance at the Odyssey 2020, Odyssey Theatre will give you many chances to catch the best of contemporary dance beginning this Friday Jan. 10 and lasting through Feb. 9, 2020. The 5-week program showcases local companies and dancers, who get to strut their stuff in an intimate venue that makes the experience of watching dance twice as palpable. It’s also far more reasonably priced than tickets at dance performances in huge theaters. This year, you will see new work from String Theory; Acts of Matter and DANCE AEGIS; JA Collective and Slauson Rec.; L.A. Contemporary Dance Company; and Victoria Marks.
Friday, Jan. 10 at 8 | Saturday, Jan. 11 at 8 | Sunday, Jan. 12 at 5
World premiere of Landscapes and Layers by L.A.’s genre-bending String Theory explores the intersection of sound and movement through interactive sculptures, dance, sound design and music. Layering sound against the backdrop of contemporary dance, the ensemble creates a highly visual and textural world with an echo of the Old West.
Friday, Jan. 17 at 8 | Saturday, Jan. 18 at 8 | Sunday, Jan. 19 at 2
World premiere of Tethering, the fifth celebration of the founding of Rebecca Lemme’s Acts of Matter and Andrea Knowlton’s DANCE AEGIS. The evening features two full L.A. premieres: Lemme’s I/D is an exploration of the origin story that uses the personal stories of the performers on stage to explore the different ways identity is constructed; Knowlton’s This Land, set to an original score by J.C. Scheid, creates a commentary on two clashing themes — the manifest desire to own and control land, and a simultaneous detachment from its actual care and stewardship.
Friday, Jan. 24 at 8 | Saturday, Jan. 25 at 8 | Sunday, Jan. 26 at 5
World premiere of Wrenz Kaloogy by JA Collective (choreographers Jordan Johnson and Aidan Carberry) uniquely traverses movement styles from contemporary dance and ballet to hip-hop and popping to fight crime and the forces of evil, while the world premiere of Principium by Slauson Rec., choreographed by Scott Felix, Diana Valencia and Dominick Peterson,
tells its story through movement and light.
Thurs, Jan. 30 at 8 | Fri, Jan. 31 at 8 | Sat, Feb. 1 at 8 | Sun, Feb. 2 at 5
World premiere of PREMIERE: 15 from L.A. Contemporary Dance Company kicks off the company’s 15th season with four world premiere works by Roya Carreras, Alice Klock, Roderick George and WHYTEBERG, each embodying a distinctly different movement vocabulary. This engaging evening of work explores themes of motherhood, identity, growth cycles in the natural world, and the colorful characters and worlds of vintage video games.
Friday, Feb. 7 at 8 | Saturday, Feb. 8 at 8 | Sunday, Feb. 9 at 2
World premiere of Pastoral by choreographer Victoria Marks in collaboration with set designer Isla Hansen re-imagines the iconic 1944 dance-theater work Appalachian Spring, challenging the U.S. myth of the “frontier” and our relationships to land, nature and one another.
photos by Luke Rothschild (String Theory); Rebecca Green (Acts of Matter); Cheryl Mann & Brian Wallenberg (Dance AEGIS); The Work of Jar (JA Collective); Dalton Odell (Slauson Rec.); Madeline Nobida (Pastoral); Taso Papadakis & Vomir (L.A. Contemporary Dance)
Dance at the Odyssey 2020
Odyssey Theatre Ensemble
2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd in West L.A.
ends on February 9, 2020
for tickets ($15-$25), call 310.477.2055
or visit Odyssey
