Dance Season at Orcas Center Opens with Spectrum Dance Theater

Spectrum Dance Theater --"riveting and highly physical" at Orcas Center Friday evening.

Friday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m.

Spectrum Dance Theater (SDT), the Seattle-based, critically-acclaimed dance company, will perform on Friday, Nov. 11 at 7:30pm…”pushing at the swiftest edge of what human bodies can do.”  The Seattle Times

Euclidean Space is a new work that premiered at this year’s Bumbershoot Arts Festival in the Bagley Wright Theater.  It features the music of Brazilian-born electronic music composer AmonTobin, whose fifteen-year-long career is among one of the most visionary electronic artists of a generation. In Euclidean Space choreographer and Artistic Director Donald Byrd, explores dance movement at its purest, creating architecture of the human body in forms and spatial relationships. This work marks a shift from Spectrum’s recent repertoire of abstract geopolitical statements to the new 2011-2012 season featuring narrative, character-driven works.

About Euclidean Space, the Seattle Times wrote, “the piece was as abstract as its title suggests and featured near-superhuman turns by Ty Alexander Cheng and Vincent Michael Lopez, pushing at the swiftest edge of what human bodies can do. It also introduced several dancers new to the company, including the formidable Jade Solomon Curtis, who was regal, cool, charismatic, flexible … a whole geometry unto herself.”

Spectrum will also perform crowd favorite M.I.A., a comedic spin on classical ballet’s fuss, formality, and rivalry featuring the music of Sri Lankan Brit superstar M.I.A  The Seattle Times described M.I.A. as “a battle that took some eccentric detours into pole-dance and pop-dance.”

Established in 1982, Spectrum Dance Theater is the largest contemporary dance company in Washington State. Under Donald Byrd’s visionary artistic leadership since 2002, Spectrum has emerged as a company of regional and national significance.  Donald Byrd, the enfant terrible of the New York dance scene of the 1980s and 90s, achieved international visibility for the creation of the Harlem Nutcracker and his choreography for the Broadway smash, The Color Purple.  No less ambitious in the 21^st century, Mr. Byrd leads his company through several programming themes that give an insight into his far-ranging artistic vision.

Tickets for Spectrum Dance Theater are $25, $17 (Orcas Center members) $11 (students) and may be purchased at www.orcascenter.org or by calling  376-2281 ext 1 or visiting the Orcas Center Box Office open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from noon- 4 pm.