American Dance Festival Kicks Off 84th Season Next Week

The American Dance Festival's (ADF) 84th season and 40th year in North Carolina kicks off Thursday, June 15 at 6:30pm at the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC) with an All North Carolina Program. The season will be dedicated to Allen Roses, MD at the top of the show, and an Opening Night Fête at The Rickhouse will immediately follow the performance. Prior to opening night, Monica Bill Barnes & Company reprise their wildly popular Happy Hour, Tuesday, June 6-Friday, June 9 at 6:30pm at PSI Theatre at The Durham Arts Council. Hillel Kogan makes his ADF debut at The Cary Theater, Tuesday, June 13 and Wednesday, June 14 at 7:30pm and then at Reynolds Industries Theater, Friday, June 16 at 8:00pm and Saturday, June 17 at 7:00pm. Also debuting is Tommy Noonan with his latest work John at Sheafer Theater at Duke, Sunday, June 18 at 5:00pm and Monday, June 19 at 8:00pm. Claire Porter & Sara Juli return with their latest ADF-commissioned work The Lectern, Tuesday, June 20 and Wednesday, June 21 at 8:00pm at Reynolds Industries Theater. Durham native Bill Young appears at ADF for the first time with his company Bill Young/Colleen Thomas & Co. on Friday, June 23 at 8:00pm and Saturday, June 24 at 7:00pm at Reynolds Industries Theater. Opening Bill Young's program will be North Carolina's Natalie Marrone and the Dance Cure.

Monica Bill Barnes & Company

PSI Theatre at Durham Arts Council

Tuesday, June 6-Friday, June 9 | 6:30pm

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass play two utterly ubiquitous male characters in Happy Hour. But as female performers, they can never become these characters. In their persistent failure to become these icons, we can see something more special-two individuals desperate to wrest new meaning from our most familiar ideas of ourselves. Hosted by Robbie Saenz de Viteri, Happy Hour is a hybrid, part office party, part dance show, and part karaoke event. The happy hour continues after each performance at Bull McCabe's Irish Pub. Join Monica and Anna for a cool one!

Opening Night Performance

Durham Performing Arts Center

Thursday, June 15 | 6:30pm

ADF Debuts and World Premiere!

The African American Dance Ensemble returns to ADF with their exuberant brand of dance and music. The work to be performed was the last piece directed by the late Dr. Charles "Baba Chuck" Davis. JOYEMOVEMENT's solo, Fit The Description, is a love letter to all who have been accused of being a suspect because of the color of their skin, their hairstyle, their spunk, their clothing style, the shape of their nose, the color of their teeth, how they laugh, who they worship, or where they eat lunch. Charlotte Ballet will perform Ohad Naharin's Minus 16. With a musical score that ranges from Dean Martin to traditional Israeli songs, Minus 16 uses improvisation and Naharin's acclaimed Gaga method in this exhilarating work. In celebration of ADF's 40th year in Durham, the festival commissioned Dialogues by Artistic Director Robert Weiss and Resident Choreographer Zalman Raffael of the Carolina Ballet. Tap dancers ElizaBeth Burke and Luke Hickey will also perform. The evening's performance begins with the season dedication to Allen D. Roses, MD, ADF's late Board Chairman, and with a presentation by local children from ADF's Samuel H. Scripps Studios' Pilobolus Shadow Camp.

This performance is supported in part by SunTrust Foundation.

Hillel Kogan

The Cary Theater

Tuesday, June 13 and Wednesday, June 14 | 7:30pm

Reynolds Industries Theater

Friday, June 16 | 8:00pm

Saturday, June 17 | 7:00pm

ADF Debut!

We Love Arabs is the comical story of a Jewish choreographer and an Arab dancer who want to create a show that carries a message of coexistence and peace, a successful endeavor that demolishes the wall of prejudice, and an examination of everyday behavior that is executed with humor and subtlety.

Tommy Noonan

Sheafer Theater at Duke

Sunday, June 18 | 5:00pm

Monday, June 19 | 8:00pm

ADF Debut!

John is a new solo by North Carolina native Tommy Noonan, based in part on The Illustrated Biography of John Travolta, as well as on figures such as TV audience warmup-artist Jay Flats, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, and other various televangelists, late-night infomercial personalities, talking heads, entertainers, and politicians.

Claire Porter & Sara Juli

Reynolds Industries Theater

Tuesday, June 20 and Wednesday, June 21 | 8:00pm

World Premiere!

The duo, first paired by ADF in 2015, Claire Porter & Sara Juli present their latest ADF-commissioned collaboration, The Lectern. Living according to rules is the demand on all of us. We are surrounded by the rules of our laws, protocols, manners, and expectations. But what are these rules? What are the rules of the game we're playing? And what happens when rules take over? Using movement, text, sound, song, and a catwalk runway, the acclaimed comedic performers upend our day-to-day, necessary-to-survive rule-rituals in The Lectern and find the hilarious in the rule-bending of our daily lives.

Bill Young/Colleen Thomas & Co.

and Natalie Marrone & The Dance Cure

Reynolds Industries Theater

Friday, June 23 | 8:00pm

Saturday, June 24 | 7:00pm

ADF Debut!

Bill Young/Colleen Thomas & Co. revive Young's 30 year-old Interleaving, a piece combining four separate dances. This unusual choreographic concept uses these four dances that have traditional beginnings, middles, and ends, but instead of a linear presentation of those sections, Young has grouped them together: all four beginnings are performed sequentially, then all four middles and, finally, all four ends. "A busy tapestry of focused, flowing movement... like an activated Jackson Pollock painting. The dancers are splendid. The choreography is inventive... Mr. Young has a nice eye for character."-The New York Times

The evening will begin with a performance by North Carolina's Natalie Marrone and the Dance Cure, chosen from eighteen entries by a jury of local arts presenters consisting of Aaron Greenwald, Executive Director of Duke Performances, Sharon Moore, Director of NC State LIVE, and Amy Russell, Director of Programming for Carolina Performing Arts.

FESTIVAL EXTRAS

The 84th ADF season is dedicated to the late Allen D. Roses, MD, ADF's former Board Chairman. The ceremony honoring Dr. Roses will be held Thursday, June 15th at 6:30pm at DPAC prior to the season opening performance. The Opening Night Fête will take place on June 15 at 9:00pm at The Rickhouse. Spend a magical evening with ADF! Meet the performers while enjoying food provided by Parizäde, wine, and dancing. Tickets are $140 each and include the performance at DPAC. Tickets available at americandancefestival.org/special-events/2017-fete/.

Tickets for DPAC

americandancefestival.org

Durham Performing Arts Center Ticket Center, The American Tobacco District

919-680-2787

123 Vivian St.

Durham, NC 27701

Monday-Saturday 10:00am-2:00pm

The DPAC box office will open three hours prior to event time.

Tickets for Reynolds Industries Theater, PSI Theatre at The Durham Arts Council, The Nasher Museum at Duke University, Sheafer Theater, Baldwin Auditorium, Living Arts Collective, and the Car Studio at Durham School of the Arts

americandancefestival.org

Duke University Box Office

919-684-4444

Bryan University Center

Duke University West Campus

Tuesday-Friday 11:00am-6:00pm

The Duke box office will open one hour prior to event time.

Tickets for The Cary Theater

americandancefestival.org

919- 462-2055

122 E. Chatham Street, Cary, NC

Tuesday through Friday 11am- 6pm

Saturday 10am-1pm

Monday 4pm-8pm at the Cary Arts Center (101 Dry Avenue, Cary)

 

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