Choreographers Of Color Present Their Winning Works This Saturday

By Michelle Meywes Kopeny in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 24, 2014 10:55PM

The Choreographers of Color Award is an exciting program now in it’s fourth year that gives special attention to minority artists in a field that can often seem to be dominated by white males. Each year three winners get to see their works come alive after working with the dancers of the Joffrey Academy. 2014's Winning Works performance takes place this Saturday, March 1, at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place.

This year’s award recipient’s are Stefanie Batten Bland, Justin Allen, both African American, and Norbert De La Cruz III, who was born in the Philippines. All three already have extensive dance experience thus far in their journey with companies and awards like Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Rock School and the Jerome Robbins Foundation’s NEW Fellow and NEW Essential Works Grant. Batten Bland, a former Academy trainee herself, fuses contemporary and classical in her winning piece, Chiral. Here she explores the symmetrical and nonsymmetrical patterns of natural body movement. Allen’s piece Interconnect emphasizes the connection between music and choreography, encouraging the audience to really see what they hear, while De La Cruz uses the Filipino kinship term Kuya to describe the deeply emotional relationships of family members in his contemporary piece.

As Joffrey Artistic Director Ashley Wheater says, “Dance remains a universal language,” yet the experiences of people from different races can tell vastly different stories. “With Winning Works, we celebrate all that is different and all that is universal amongst us.” Check out previews from the performances below.

2014’s “Winning Works” performance begins this Saturday, March 1 at 7 p.m. at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place (this is a change of venue from the Harris Theater after last week’s fire). 175 E. Chestnut St. Tickets are $20 ($23 door).