Dance Celebration

Sarasota Contemporary Dance Announces Upcoming 15th Season

The 2020-21 season promises variety, along with limited seating and live streaming options.

By Kay Kipling September 1, 2020

Evolving/Revolving presents a piece based on the life of Marilyn Monroe.

While many arts groups are pulling back from presenting full seasons this year due to Covid-19, Sarasota Contemporary Dance is forging ahead with a celebration of its 15th anniversary, naming the lineup “Quinceañera” as a mark of passage from girlhood to womanhood.

The term also honors co-founder and artistic director Leymis Bolaños Wilmott’s Cuban-American roots. The dance company plans to present four theater performances and one outdoor event at limited capacity due to the need for social distancing.

Fall performances, beginning in October, will be held at the Historic Asolo Theater in the John & Mable Ringling Museum; spring performances will return to the usual venue, the Cook Theater in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts.

Up first: Evolving/Revolving, honoring SCD’s past with the return of resident choreographer Erin Fletcher, and of Erin Cardinal with Brian Fidalgo (both guest choreographers in 2018). The work of Cardinal and Fidalgo features themes of migration; that of Fletcher investigates the tragic life of Marilyn Monroe. Performances are Oct. 1-4, with just 50 seats per show; tickets available, along with a live streaming option.

SCD collaborates with harpist Ann Pilot on SCD+ Piazzolla, Nov. 19-22 (again, limited seating, live streaming option). Pilot’s arrangement for harp, violin and bandoneon, inspired by Piazzolla’s compositions, infuses his melodies into a contemporary mix of musica de tango.

SCD dancer Sea Lee

 

The company’s annual Dance Makers concerts features collaborations by choreographers Matt Reeves and Colette Krogol of Orange Grove Dance, Washington, D.C., along with Sarasota’s own Zoe Austin, New York-based Douglas Gillespie and a new duet performed by musician-composer Mark Dancigers and Leymis Bolaños Wilmott. Dates are Jan. 21-24 at the Cook; limited select seating and live streaming option.

SCD artistic director Leymis Bolanos Wilmott.

The season’s last regular production takes place April 29-May 2 and is a tribute to founding SCD board member Muriel G. Mayers, presenting some of her favorites of Bolaños Wilmott’s work (limited select seating, livestream option). But SCD also offers a special outdoor event, Fiesta de Colores, on Dec. 18 in partnership with Rosemary Square, home of its studio on Boulevard of the Arts. The fiesta will bring a dance party atmosphere to the studio’s back yard with a live DJ and interactive art installation, while premiering a live collaborative performance in conjunction with Ringling College alum Skylar Martinez, lyricist and B-boy Rick Levin, and DJ Karim Manning. A fun, socially distanced evening in the outdoors.

For ticket and live streaming info, call (941) 260-8485. For more details of the season, visit sarasotacontemporarydance.org.

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