Boston’s acclaimed Anikai Dance Company takes audiences into the woods
July 21 - 24 at Dance Theater Workshop
Buy tickets HERE.
After a successful New York debut at Ailey Citigroup Theater in 2009, Boston’s internationally acclaimed ANIKAI DANCE COMPANY returns to NYC with the premiere of FOREST. Choreographed by Wendy Jehlen combining elements as divergent as Brazilian Capoeira, ballet, Chinese martial arts, break dance, contact improvisation, and West African dance, performances begin July 21 at Dance Theater Workshop. This presentation is made possible through Dance Theater Workshop’s Guest Artist Series.
FOREST invites you to escape the confines of our urban world, and step into the ever-evolving, unpredictable world of the woods - a landscape unfamiliar and alluring, full of serenity and sensuality, conflict and metamorphosis. It begins with a caterpillar winding its way out of a tree trunk made of bodies, which comes to rest in a cocoon before slowly transforming into a butterfly and flitting away. With this metamorphosis, we are drawn into the world of the forest. This is but a moment, a small part of a longer, eternal story.
FOREST is inspired by and dedicated to the memory of Brother Blue, an iconic Boston-based storyteller (born Hugh Morgan Hill) who passed away in November 2009 at age 88. As a child, Jehlen was particularly enraptured by one of Blue’s stories about a butterfly and the butterfly that he often had painted on his face. “Brother Blue employed a very specific kind of phrasing and use of rhythm. It was surprising, unpredictable, a combination of breath and snapping,” explains Jelen. “He would move slowly and smoothly as he spoke, and then suddenly would add a percussive sound, a twitch. I have always moved this way when creating my own movement. I like to think that this came from him.”
FOREST will be performed by a multicultural ensemble including Amelia Beard, Danielle DiVito, Wendy Jehlen, Pradhuman Nayak, DeAnna Pellecchia, Mila Thigpen, and Terra Weaver. It features music by Nandlal Nayak Michael Galasso, Roberto Rios and others, and lighting by Pradhuman Nayak.
FOREST will have a public workshop performance on Friday, May 7 at Boston Center for The Arts (539 Tremont Street), as part of the first Dance Residency ever granted by the prestigious cultural center. It will have its world Premiere in Boston at BU Dance Theater (915 Commonwealth Ave.) on Friday, June 18 8pm & Saturday, June 19 3pm & 8pm (tickets available at 617-358-2500 or www.akhra.org/tix.html.)
ANIKAI DANCE COMPANY was founded in Boston in 1996 by choreographer Wendy Jehlen. Jehlen’s unique approach to movement incorporates elements of a wide range of dance styles including Bharata Natyam, Odissi and Kuchipudi, which she has studied for over twenty years, in India and the US; Capoeira (Brazilian Martial Art), West African dance; and American and European Modern and Contemporary dance styles. Jehlen's work has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, India and in Japan, including He Who Burns (2008), a glimpse into the Sufi notion of Satan; Birth (2005), which juxtaposes the South Indian story of the creation of dance with modern Chaos Theory; Dragon (2005), based on a Japanese folk tale about a girl who becomes a water dragon; Breathing Space (2003), a collaboration with Japanese choreographer Hikari Baba; Crane (2002), based on images from Japanese Buddhist poetry; Haaaa (2002), a dance inspired by the experience of childbirth; Midnight (2000), based on a poem by Rumi; Job 10 (1999), based on the Book of Job; and Becoming Fire (1998), an evening length work exploring texts from the Sufi traditions of Iran and South Asia. Jehlen has received funding and recognition from Massachusetts Cultural Council (2001, 2003), American Institute of Indian Studies (2001), the Ford Foundation/Arts International (1996), the Puffin Foundation (2001), the Tokyo American Center (2002), the National Endowment for the Arts (2005), the Fulbright program/United States Educational Foundation in India (2005-2006), the National School of Drama (2006) and the Alliance Francaise de Madras (2006), among others.
FOREST runs July 21-24, Wednesday - Saturday at 7:30pm. Dance Theater Workshop is located at 219 W. 19th St between 7th & 8th Avenues. Tickets are$20 ($18 for students/seniors/DTW members) at 212-924-0077 or www.dancetheaterworkshop.org