Seattle International Dance Festival to Run 6/12-27

The 10th edition of the Seattle International Dance Festival (SIDF) has expanded to 16 days and runs from June 12-27, 2015 in the thriving South Lake Union and surrounding neighborhood. SIDF welcomes more than 100 international artists, celebrates Khambatta Dance Company's (KDC) 25th anniversary season, and wraps up with a special closing weekend performance presented in partnership with Spectrum Dance Theater and Seattle Theatre Group at the historic Moore Theatre.

Each year SIDF brings in Inter|National dance artists; this year's dance troupes hail from Mexico, Venezuela, Hong Kong / Vancouver and the East and West Coasts of the U.S. The popular Spotlight on Seattle program returns with exciting new themes and three teams of curators. The Sanity Café andThreshold Institute provide unique professional challenges and educational opportunities. Tickets to paid performances are $20 in advance, $25 at the door (students are $17 in advance, $20 at the door). Festival passes are selling quickly and range from $35 - $80. All details, including performance times, locations and ticketing information are available at www.Seattleidf.org.

ART ON THE FLY - June 13; 4 - 10pm

SIDF teams up with the Mobile Food Rodeo to bring dozens of FREE all-ages dance events, food trucks and crafts to South Lake Union. Art on the Fly takes over the outside spaces around 101 Westlake Ave. Traditional and contemporary dances spring to life in everyday environments with main stage performances, impromptu dance classes, surprise/ roving performances, flash mobs, arts & crafts vendors, music, food and beer garden.

INTER|NATIONAL ARTISTS SERIES WEEKEND 1 - June 12 & 13 (Fri & Sat @ 8pm)

Khambatta Dance Company - 25th Anniversary Celebration

Rob Kitsos (Vancouver Canada) is an established US-born choreographer and professor at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University. He danced with KDC for over five years beginning in 1993 and performs a new work entitled Sick Fish based on children's playful imaginations. Music is by collaborator Lucas Van Lenten February of the West Port Sunrise Sessions.

Khambatta Dance Company (Seattle) performs the much anticipated Fear and Vulnerability, about our fear of being alone...in our lives and in the universe. At any moment, everything can change. This powerful emotionally charged piece is the third in a series of ten, one created each year spanning a decade and delving into psychological and social dilemmas of our time.

Pisorojo Dance Company (Venezuela) collaborated with KDC from 1996- 2000 prior to the sudden political changes in Venezuela. The company will present 360′ by company director Elio Jose Martinez and Cuarto Menguante, choreographed by Moravia Naranjo. Naranjo left Venezuela before political turmoil erupted and is currently a working artist in Austria.

INTER|NATIONAL ARTISTS SERIES WEEKEND 1 - June 14 (Sun @ 7:30 pm)

Khambatta Dance Company - 25th Anniversary Celebration

Daniel Weintraub (New York) and Rob Kitsos (Vancouver Canada) present a short dance film entitled Reflex, about falling. It melds breathtaking choreography, music, and filmmaking.

Khambatta Dance Company (Seattle) will present Courting Ritual for the Birds #1, a light, humorous work created through an international collaboration. KDC Artistic Director, Cyrus Khambatta and Brazilian choreographer Paulo Lima swapped each other's movement to generate this piece together.

Jen Stone and Megan Thompson Dance Project (Virginia) present Thresholds Crossed (reprise), their collaboration with Washington D.C.-based choreographer Maida Withers. The piece took the artists to three cities in Russia; it's about East meeting West, the Soviet Union during cold war, and moments when society crosses the line. Jen Stone danced with KDC beginning in 1992.

Chris McAllister (Seattle) danced with KDC for six years. He presents Hindsight, a work for three KDC dancers and himself. This work, by an emerging talent recreates vibrant images of childhood taking audiences on a journey into their past.

Kaitlin McCarthy and Jenny Peterson (Seattle) choreograph their works jointly. Both danced with KDC in recent years and the two will perform their collaboratively choreographed Papoose, a thoughtful portrait of a mother-daughter relationship centering on a seemingly omniscient oval mirror.

SPOTLIGHT ON SEATTLE - June 16 (Tue @ 7:30pm)

Spotlight on Contemporary Ballet

Designed as a platform to unearth and foster prominent contemporary ballet voices within Seattle. Established local choreographers Donald Byrd, Cyrus Khambatta, Zoe Scofield, and Eva Stone based their elections on different criteria within the form that each artist elicits. Distinguished presenting artists include: Natascha Greenwalt, Kim Lusk, Price Suddarth and a new commissioned work on Spectrum Dance Company by Pacific Northwest Ballet's Ezra Thomson.

SPOTLIGHT ON SEATTLE - June 17 (Wed @ 7:30pm)

Spotlight on Seattle Now

Curated by artists Cyrus Khambatta, Wade Madsen and Marlo Martin this spotlight sums up the essence of this city's eclectic talents; from those deeply implanted figures to those fresh on the scene, including artists like The DeadPan Monkeys, who will present Behind This Door, Beside This Lamp, a quirky dance on the absurdity, anxiety, and arbitrariness of the little choices we make. Resistance by Michele Miller/Catapult Dance draws from martial arts, dance, and parkour to create an emotional look at the current rise of fundamentalism and the human quest for freedom from oppression. In a clash of grit and whimsy, dancer/choreographer Maya Soto and musician / keyboardist Nico Tower embark on an epic journey inInner-galactic. BlueGrey by choreographer Linsyanne Owen shakes loose the ache, forgiveness, and hidden laughter of silent communication. The Architecture of Being, choreographed by Coleman Pester and performed by the Tectonic Marrow Society takes us inside the brooding thoughts and self-reflection of a single dancer while a mass of bodies hover about the space. The work is set to the shadowy original score by Bret Gardín.

SPOTLIGHT ON SEATTLE - June 18 (Thur @ 7:30pm)

Spotlight: Artists Perspective

Curated by artists Cyrus Khambatta and Erin Nichole Boyt this spotlight focuses on Seattle-based artists who address specific themes in their work, contributing to social dialogue and discourse in our region. Some works are bold and explicit in nature while others are subtle and impressionistic. Subjects range from equal rights to the environment, to technology and social media, and finding Zen in life. Distinguished presenting artists include:Jovon Miller with Elemental War, a look at the elements and their ultimate ability to rule over the earth; Karin Stevens navigates in Dormant, Exploding Syndrome, Ashcloud presenting the layers of meaning, movement, and spatial patterns that shift between the abstract to deeply human moments;Xaviera Vandermay with her 3rd Shift Dance extends the much vaunted work she did for the 2014 festival with American Voices, an exploration of our country's voices that inspire the current generation; choreographers Erin Boyt (Seattle),Daphne Ma(China, Peru, Seattle, Atlanta), and Constanze Villines (Germany, Seattle) mix media and culture with Traducción/Translation 2.0 which explores human translation between different forms of media, electronic devices, and social networking.

INTER|NATIONAL ARTISTS SERIES WEEKEND 2 - June 19 & 20 (Fri & Sat @ 8pm)

badmarmarDance (Seattle) is a bold, succinct, and emotionally driven local modern dance company. They perform this feels like a rut or a groove...depends on how you look at it. Director Marlo Martin has put together a dream team of dancers, each a subtle, intentional, and thoughtful performer. After taking a break from creating to question her artistic process, she has unearthed this resulting work.

Hong Kong Exile (Hong Kong, Vancouver Canada) presents NINEEIGHT a sensory-driven, multimedia dance theater work inspired by Mo Lei Tau, a phenomenon of absurdist, comedic film that emerged in Hong Kong in the 1990's. Through Mainland China in 1997, reflecting on personal fractures, disorientation, and the significance of a 'motherland' in times of political, social, and geographical transition.

INTER|NATIONAL ARTISTS SERIES WEEKEND 2 - June 21 (Sun @ 7:30pm)

Jerome Aparis of Massive Monkees and Ezra Thomson of Pacific Northwest Ballet (Seattle) collaborate again.

Following their brilliant 2014 festival commission melding Ballet and Hip Hop/B-Boy the dynamic duo picks up where they left off, treating audiences to a second whammy that will employ elements of the 2014 piece divided into three sections with original music by William Lin Yee.

Dancing People (Ashland, OR) impressed Seattle audiences in 2013 with their precision, ferocity, and emotional content. Back by popular demand to present their latest work Love and Navigation: Determining Position, Course and Distance Traveled.

INTER|NATIONAL ARTISTS SERIES WEEKEND 3 - June 26 & 27 (Fri & Sat @ 8pm)

Closing event at the Moore Theatre Presented in partnership with Spectrum Dance Theater and Seattle Theatre Group for Khambatta Dance Company's 25th Anniversary Season

Spectrum Dance Theater (Seattle) will perform Truth and Betrayal by Seattle-based choreographer Cyrus Khambatta, in a tribute to the 25th Anniversary celebration of the artist and his own Khambatta Dance Company. The work, impeccably performed by Spectrum Dance Theater dancers, is the first in a series of ten, one created each year to form a contemporary Decalogue on moral and psychological dilemmas of our time. Michael Upchurch of the Seattle Times described the piece "...torqueing action give way to increasingly interdependent leaps, lifts, drops and perilous catches. Players come and go, ricocheting off fleeting 'relationships' with an abruptness that's both shocking and exhilarating."

Cuidad Interior (Mexico) returns to SIDF after their successful 2011 festival performance. Presenting their latest work Kinetica, the troupe explores physical objects, our relationship to them, and the stories they tell by using interactive sensors to capture/project the dancers movement juxtaposing the live performance. This astounding company has won numerous national awards impressed festival audiences and prompted Michael Upchurch of The Seattle Times to write "...a dizzying ricochet machine that kept changing speed and direction. Meticulously mapped out, yet potent with chaos in its unpredictable leaps, kicks and sky-high partnerings..."

SANITY CAFE - June 25, 8pm

A secret location somewhere in South Lake Union - location announced 24 hours prior

Alcohol served...discussion encouraged. This evening cabaret-style event serves up a performance with a twist. This year up-and-coming and established choreographers pair with artists from the theater world. Together they have ten days to create a work based on a theme given to them by the festival's opening night audience.

THE THRESHOLD INSTITUTE - June 15-21

This is a weeklong intensive for intermediate and advanced dancers. Local choreographers Marlo Martin, Wade Madsen, Cyrus Khambatta and Maya Soto instruct. Master classes are offered by visiting international festival artists. The intensive culminates in a performance during the second festival weekend.