A Big Month for Dance: What’s on Stage in March
Velocity is in residence at 12th Avenue Arts for the month, and it’s clearly out to make the most of it. Not to be left out, dancers are lighting up stages all over town, making this a great month to discover your new favorite work.
We invited companies to tell us what makes their upcoming shows unique.
This Week
Tacoma Arts Live: Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Serious ballet, hammed up and redefined
Performs March 9 only at Pantages Theater (Downtown Tacoma)
What’s special about this show?
For almost 50 years, members of the all-male comedy ballet company Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (affectionately known as “The Trocks”) have delighted audiences of all ages at sell-out performances, featuring their fabulous sense of fun and their flawless dance.
Every performance frivolously froths with tutus and testosterone, blush-pink ballet pumps, fierce false eyelashes and prima ballerina attitude. However, what makes this company extraordinarily special is their immaculate technique and daring physicality, surpassed only by their impeccable comic timing.
If this show were a weather phenomenon, what would it be?
This performance is a rainbow because it is a showcase of amazing physical processes and impeccable timing in a colorful performance with prima ballerina attitude.
What is the mood of the show?
Prepare for dazzling fun! The show features skillful pointe work and hilarious parodying of classical ballet faves. Witness male dancers full of grace and en pointe in a beautiful and fun performance.
Why did you select this show for your season?
Tacoma Arts Live (then called the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts) presented Trocks in previous seasons, but the last time the show came to Tacoma was in 2014. We wanted to bring them to Tacoma to honor their 50th Anniversary of performing.
Who will love it?
This is a show for people who know nothing of ballet and an absolute MUST SEE for those who think they know the originals.
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Show info and tickets here.
Season Spotlight: Velocity Dance Center
A packed spring lineup in a single month
On now through 4/8 (various shows) at 12th Avenue Arts (Seattle – Capitol Hill)
What’s special about your season?
Velocity’s spring season brings together new works by local and West Coast dance-makers to help us navigate questions like What do we create from our collective past and present? and How do we maintain spaciousness for reflection while building momentum toward our emergent futures?
Each artist has their own distinct voice and lines of inquiry, but they all champion movement research and community-building as modes for charting new pathways forward.
How kid-friendly are your season’s performances?
One of the central themes of Velocity’s spring season is that of young makers and intergenerational work.
The programming over the weekend of March 17-19 is specifically centering young makers and casts of intergenerational artists. Portland-based artist claire barrera’s Grammar of the Imagination features an intergenerational cast that utilizes traditional children’s games as a platform to explore how play can be a site of imagining radically new social relations, or of disciplining and re-enforcing social norms.
Over the same weekend, on March 18, Velocity’s Young Choreographers Club shares the culmination of their eight-week program. The Young Choreographers Club is a dance-making program for artists ages 14-24, where the artists spend eight weeks working together to make new dances with the support and mentorship of some of Seattle’s most prominent professional dance artists.
These two youth-centered programs will overlap with a panel discussion, also on March 18, featuring YCC members and the youth artists of claire barrera’s Grammar of the Imagination. During this panel, artists will share their experiences making work as young artists.
The other three works in the spring season do not specifically address these themes, but they are all-ages performances.
Editor’s note: Velocity’s programming over the weekend of March 17-19 appears an interesting match-up with Camille A. Brown & Dancers – BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play at Meany Center, March 16-18 (read more below), as both use childhood play as a springboard to examining broader themes.
What is the mood of this season?
The works in this season are celebratory, curious, and driven.
We selected these projects because we see the dance community in a moment of revival and reinvention. These are some of the artists who excite us and give us insight into where we see dance going.
What might surprise people about these shows?
The invitation to dream and the dreaminess of Sean Dorsey Dance (performed March 2-5).
Gabrielle Civil + No. 1 Gold (March 9-11) brings us three unique performance and writing experiences that will dissolve the hard line between source and target, artist and audience.
The colorful playfulness and the radical reframing of children’s games as strategy in Grammar of the Imagination (March 17-19).
The use of archive and storytelling of a Seattle local legend, Black choreographer-dancer Syvilla Fort in Black Collectivity (April 6-8).
If your season were a weather phenomenon, what would it be?
A lightning storm. Lightning is a phenomenon that balances out the charges in the air. This energy that comes through the clouds embodies the breakthrough of research, imagination, and play that is present in all of the spring season artists.
Who will love it?
People who are interested in both the performance of dance, and also curious about the processes and experimentation that artists undergo to make new contemporary works.
Anyone who dares to dream and imagine. Anyone who is ready to witness and try on artistic tools to be in deep inquiry about how to build momentum toward our future.
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Show info and tickets here.
Venue is wheelchair accessible with gender-neutral restroom. Sliding-scale tickets and subscriptions available to all. ASL interpreted performances on 3/9 (Gabrielle Civil), 3/17 (claire barrera), and 4/7 (Black Collectivity), as well as 3/3 for Sean Dorsey Dance (last weekend).
Throughout March
Meany Center: Camille A. Brown & Dancers – BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play
March 16-18 at Meany Center (Seattle – UW main campus)
Drawing on the games little girls play to tell a story of Black female empowerment, Brown and company employ “African American vernacular forms — social dancing, Double Dutch, hand-clapping games, ring shout — to evoke the self-discovery and playfulness of childhood.”
Show info and tickets here.
eXit Space: Boost Festival
March 17-19 at NOD Theater (Seattle – Capitol Hill)
A showcase of established and emerging choreographers, with work by Badmarmar/Marlo Martin, EL SUEÑO/Alicia Mullikin, Coalescence Dance Company, Artistry in Motion, Lisa Kwak, Robbi A. Moore, Emily Vazquez, and Arinze Okammor.
See NWT’s preview of another EL SUEÑO work here.
Tickets here.
Pacific Northwest Ballet: Boundless
March 17-26 at McCaw Hall (Seattle Center – Mercer St.)
New works feature a theatre-roving Wonderland by Penny Saunders and world premieres by Alejandro Cerrudo and Jessica Lang.
Show info and tickets here.
Pacific Northwest Ballet School: Snow White
March 19-25 at McCaw Hall (Seattle Center – Mercer St.)
The PNB School dancers stage this enduring tale in ballet form.
Show info and tickets here.
Sensory friendly performance 3/24 (morning).
Base: 12 Minutes Max
Bursts of new works by multi-genre performers
Performs March 19-20 at Base (Seattle – Georgetown)
What’s special about your show?
An informal showcase of contemporary and experimental performance works in dance, theater, music and multimedia, 12 Minutes Max provides a platform for artists to showcase 12 minutes of material supported by limited technical elements.
The March edition is curated by 12 Minutes Max alumni Ben Swensen-Klatt and Yuelan and feature works from Raquel Gordon, Ankita Das, kelly langeslay, Melia Kalani/ YAYA, Hsin-Yu Huang, Olga Kravtsova, Naomi Blue Nieves Driver, and Nelle Tankus.
What is the mood of the show?
The mood of this edition of 12MM ranges from contemplative to celebratory – and sometimes it’s delightfully weird!
Who will love it?
Audiences who like interdisciplinary performance work and stories about queer and immigrant experiences.
Why did you select this show for your season?
Originally created and hosted by On the Boards, 12 Minutes Max has been a running showcase in Seattle since 1981. In 2017, Base took over the program and has proudly presented multiple editions a season for the last five years. As part of our core programming at Base, we value the low-pressure production structure and community-led curation.
What might surprise people about the show?
Each edition is curated by two different community curators, often 12MM alumni.
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Show info and tickets here.
The Sunday, March 19th edition will be live-streamed and a recorded version with captions will be available after the performance.
Tacoma City Ballet: Pinocchio The Ballet
A classic tale in this ballet for all ages
Performs March 25-26 (matinees) at Pantages Theater (Downtown Tacoma)
What’s special about your year-opening show?
Tacoma City Ballet’s Pinocchio The Ballet, created from the original Italian tale written by Carlo Collodi in 1883, is a delightful full-length ballet perfect for the whole family — with marvelous dancing, live music played by the Tacoma City Ballet Orchestra, and adorable scenery and costumes, all created by local Tacoma artists.
Come and share Pinocchio’s adventurous journey as he becomes a “Real Live Boy” and discovers those things in life that are most important. Experience this timeless tale and make precious memories with those you love.
If your show were a weather phenomenon, what would it be?
Pinocchio The Ballet would be a Coriolis Effect. A moving mass (the audience) experiences a force (Pinocchio The Ballet) that moves it.
Who will love it?
Pinocchio The Ballet will be loved by the entire family, but especially the kids. The show was especially produced for a children’s audience.
What might surprise people about the show?
Pinocchio: The Ballet is a very colorful, beautiful show. All sets, props, and costumes have been created by Tacoma artisans especially for this ballet. The ballet is a complete original Tacoma City Ballet production, and is accompanied by the fabulous Tacoma City Ballet Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Bernard Kwiram.
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Show info and tickets here.
FLOCK & Artists: Somewhere Between
A physical and emotional journey
Performs March 31-April 1 at Erickson Theatre (Seattle – Capitol Hill)
What’s special about your year-opening show?
Somewhere Between is unique in that it contains a lot of very physical and complex dancing, but even with this the audience is taken on a surprisingly emotional journey. It is also special in that it is the product of a very specific and close collaboration between us, best friend team Florian Lochner and Alice Klock, which is not often found in the dance world. This creates a surprising style and very unique partnering that can only be achieved through the power of co-creation.
How kid-friendly is it? Quite kid friendly. The show will go through many different emotions, some of which may be sadder but there is no inappropriate content. The show is designed to be accessible and meaningful to people of all ages.
If your show were a weather phenomenon, what would it be?
Our show is like the weather on an oceanic island: each direction you travel brings a totally different experience, be it sun, rain, or wind.
What is the mood of the show?
The show leads the audience through the many emotions of life but ultimately leaves them feeling stronger and inspired to live boldly.
Who will love it?
Everyone, and particularly people who are open hearted, curious, and interested in the complexity of human connection.
Why did you select this show for your season?
This show is an all-new creation which we are touring through the U.S. and Europe and is everything that we are as creators right now.
What might surprise people about the show?
They will be surprised by our heartfelt storytelling, great soundtrack, and how we blend the distinctions between bodies with our FLOCKy partnering.
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Responses have been condensed and edited for clarity.
Chase D. Anderson is Editor & Producer of NWTheatre.org.