Special NYC Studio Performance
The Ailey Studios
April 18th 2010
By Deborah Searle.
Ad Deum Dance Company, now in their tenth season, hails from Houston, Texas. As a professional contemporary dance company, Ad Deum’s mission is to ‘create and perform dance works that go deep into the true, intimate, fragile and integral realities of life’.
With a studio showing in NYC, amongst other performance engagements, Ad Deum shared with us their stories and bared their souls with significant and confronting dance works. There were moments of humour and a little oddity, but most dance pieces struck the heart strings and the artists performed them with passion and conviction.
The dancers presented works from numerous choreographers including Steve Rooks, Laura Morton, Caleb Mitchell and Bill Wade, as well as pieces created by their own Artistic Director, Randall Flinn. Dancers Shizu Yasuda and Daniel Cossette also showed their choreographic flare with two unique pieces.
‘Rwanda Cry’ created by Steve Rooks took my breath away. The piece was powerful and haunting, telling the story of Rwanda’s genocide and a famous African dancer who saved her life by performing for her attackers. There was not a dry eye in the audience.
Another stand out piece was ‘Innocence Not Lost’ performed by the Ad Deum trainees. Choreographed by Artistic Director Randall Flinn, the work was created to raise awareness of child sex trafficking. With the dancers themselves so young, innocent and beautiful, the piece was disturbing, yet hopeful. The choreography was intricate and dynamic and the dancers showed that they are great candidates for company placement in the future.
As the evening progressed the program was varied and interesting. As the audience we all laughed, cried and looked on in awe at the company’s stunning dancers.
I felt blessed to be a part of Ad Deum’s studio performance as the company is creating challenging and thought provoking work, presenting it all with the right combination of both passion and technique.
For more information about Ad Deum Dance Company visit www.danceaddeum.com
Photo: Shizu Yasuda and Daniel Cossette perform ‘Journey’.
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