Arch8 Dance Company to Bring TETRISplus to the Kennedy Center, 4/25-26

The Kennedy Center presents TETRISplus for five performances from April 25-26, 2015 in the Kennedy Center Family Theater.

Arch8 Dance Company, under the Artistic Direction of Erik Kaiel, from the Netherlands brings two of their most innovative and extraordinary works to include No Man Is an Island and Tetris, both of which explore the boundaries of connection, communication, and cooperation. Both pieces are choreographed by Erik Kaiel. This family-friendly production is best enjoyed by ages 7 and up.

A thrilling combination of two of Artistic Director Erik Kaiel's most impressive, gravity-defying works, TETRISplus is a double-bill production of No Man Is an Island and Tetris. No Man Is an Island pushes the limits of possibility as one dancer climbs, stretches, and shifts his weight atop another without ever touching the ground. Tetris is an extremely physical piece for four dancers who flip, slide, undulate, leapfrog, and tumble over each other -- arms and legs high in the air and twisted around each other to create single unified forms out of their individual bodies.

The cast features Francesco Barba, Ryan Djojokarso, Mayke van Kruchten, Joseph Simon, Paulien Truijen, and Erik Kaiel. The creative team includes lighting design by Imre, sound design by Simone Giacomini.

TETRISplus Cuesheet Performance Guide.

About ARCH8 - Not an everyday dance company, Arch8 views theatrical traditions as a resource, using them to create new forms. Arch8 shares these new forms in public spaces, architectural spaces, and theatrical spaces. Arch8 makes work for the young and the young at heart with a high degree of interactivity. The company consistently encourages an active viewing -- a participatory imagining -- on the part of the public. With its innovative approach, the company has performed around the globe, including St. Petersburg, Istanbul, Cairo, New York, San Francisco, Vancouver, Senegal, and throughout Europe. The company has also made collaborative performances with local artists in Benin, Senegal, Alexandria, Cairo, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Utrecht, the Hague, Maastricht, and Hasselt. More information about Arch8 can be found at www.arch8.nl.

Education at the kennedy center - The Kennedy Center retains its commitment as the nation's cultural center to educating and enlightening children and adults in Washington and around the country. The Center's national education programs include: Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child, which works with 14 municipalities and their school districts around the country to develop a long-range strategic plan for arts education; ARTSEDGE, a website that offers standards-based materials for use in and out of the classroom, Partners in Education, which forges relationships between an arts organization and its neighboring school systems to build effective arts education programs for teachers and teaching artists; Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network works with 33 state organizations on arts education policy issues; Explore the Arts, which provide insight into the cultural and historical context of the works presented on stage and sparks dialogue between audiences and the artists who have created the performances through participatory workshops, demonstrations, panels, master classes, and open rehearsals; and the Kennedy Center Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards, which acknowledge teachers of grades K-12 whose efforts have made a significant impact on their students.

In and around DC, the Kennedy Center's programs include Changing Education Through the Arts, a program that works with 15 schools in the area to affect long-term change in school culture through professional learning in arts integration; Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers, which trains Washington-area educators to teach the arts or other subject areas through the arts; and Washington, D.C. Partnership Schools, where the Center provides resources and teaching artist residencies to 20 elementary, junior, and senior high schools in Washington, D.C. The Center also mounts more than 100 events and performances of theater, music, dance, and opera throughout the season for more than 100,000 local school-aged children.

In addition, the Center offers multiple skill development programs for young artists and professionals both locally and nationally, including the National Symphony Orchestra's Youth Fellowship Program, Summer Music Institute, and High School Competition; Washington National Opera's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, Opera Institute, and Kids Create Opera Partnership; the biennial New Visions/ New Voices forum for development of new plays for young people; Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell; Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead; VSA's Playwright Discovery Program, Young Soloists, and Visual Arts Programs; arts administration internships; and the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival which impacts hundreds of thousands of college-aged theater students across the country and marks its 47th anniversary in 2015.

TETRISplus runs April 25-26, 2015 in the Kennedy Center Family Theater. On Saturday, April 25, performances are at 11:00 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 5:00 p.m. Performances on Sunday, April 26 are at 1:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $20 and are on sale now through the Kennedy Center website, in-person at the Kennedy Center box office, or by calling (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324.

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