Centenary Stage Company’s annual Dance Fest brings the talents of Moe – tion Dance Theatre, Nai – Ni Chen and Claire Porter to Hackettstown in March.
Kicking things off is Moe – tion Dance Theatre on March 26 at 7:30pm. Moe – tion Dance is a contemporary modern dance company dedicated to experimenting and creating new forms of expression. It seeks to promote an inclusive vision of the arts through the language of modern dance, painting, sculpture, photography, literature and live music creating productions that expose the community to multiple art forms in one event. Creator Maureen Glennon is reinventing a piece dedicated to her grandmother who suffered from dementia. Originally a solo for Glennon, Betty will be a three section dance, representing phases of her grandmother’s life. Moe-tion dance will also reprise their popular piece Passages To... with original Music by Glen Fittin. Set Design & Fabrication by Angus Clayton. Choreography by Maureen Glennon.
On March 28 at 8pm, Nai – Ni Chen returns to CSC. A blossom of color, energy and motion, “like endlessly proliferating forces of cosmic energy,” says the New York Times. The dances of Nai-Ni Chen fuse the dynamic freedom of American modern dance with the grace and splendor of Asian art. The Company’s productions take the audience beyond cultural boundaries to where tradition meets innovation and freedom arises from discipline.
Claire Porter wraps up the annual Dance Fest with Prepositions on a Piano: A Celebration of Music as Dance on March 29 at 5pm. Prepositions on a Piano celebrates Claire Porter’s merging of music, dance, language and humor. In five vignettes, Porter mines the humanity of her characters as each confronts a particular everyday situation.
