The Performing Arts Residency Program at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, which focuses on the development of theater and dance in the community, will present Getting Out of Limbo, by Images Animées, Friday through Sunday at the AcA's James Devin Moncus Theater.
The Performing Arts Residency Program at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, which focuses on the development of theater and dance in the community, will present Getting Out of Limbo, by Images Animées, Friday through Sunday at the AcA's James Devin Moncus Theater.
The dance company performance is a compilation of life lessons portrayed by the dancers and backed by the music of Radiohead.
In a press release, Leah Twilley, director and the choreographer for the piece says:
This performance will give our audience the chance to eliminate the glitz and glamour of society and evaluate the value of people. We aspire to give our generation a chance to escape limbo and find a position in their destiny that impacts the world. Dancers of various backgrounds and demographics have been selected for the piece to help promote a whole understanding of movement. We are excited to welcome you to a concert of dance.
Paige Krause, education coordinator at the AcA, says the event showcases what the residency program is all about.
"It's actually really perfect for what we want the residency to do," says Krause. "She's been working on this piece, from my conversations with her, for a few years. She just hasn't had a space to show the work in. So this residency is perfect for her."
Krause says Twilley held auditions, rehearsed and taught a master class for the public just last weekend, which is part of the give-and-take deal between artists and the AcA.
"One of the components of it is that they tie in education and they tie in a Q&A and introduce whatever it is their art form - theater or dance - to the community," Krause says.
Images Animees loaded in Monday and will have rehearsals this week and the performance runs Friday through Sunday.
Krause, a member of the AcA staff and its programming committee, is also a performance artist, so she can really appreciate what the residency program brings to the community.
"As a dancer, one of the hardest things is to find a venue to hold a performance and a theater that can support that," she says, adding that that includes a technical director, lighting designer. "You work on so many of your projects for so long, but you don't always have the facility or space to show them in."
And that, she says, is what a community arts center is all about.
"It's what AcA should be doing. We're a community-centered organization so we're like helping support these local, upcoming artists," Krause says, and that means not only offering a space for the performance, but includes help with marketing, offer things like a box office. "And they're able to have this platform to push their art a little further."
Krause says while there are other theater outlets such as Cite des Arts, Theater 810 and the Ballet Academy, "there's really not that many for dance that has the floor and the staging, with the sides and wings and different things like that," she says. "So it's really great that [Twilley] is going to be the one that does it for dance."
Go here for tickets and more information.