CALGARY — Decidedly Jazz Danceworks aren’t letting a pandemic get in the way of a new dance season, even if you have to log on to experience it.
The Calgary dance company is one of the featured companies at the Fall for Dance North, – The Flip Side, Toronto’s premier dance festival, and they’re performing Saturday at a virtual gala that wil feature live music by DJD and a perfomance by Calgary-born, New York-based Lisa La Touche, who will be tapping.
It’s part of a gala that features four other premieres in addition to DJD’s latest creation, which artistic director Kimberly Cooper describes as an adaptation of Beautiful Noise, a premiere that was scheduled for the spring but cancelled due to the pandemic.
It’s a lunch hour presentation, kicking off at noon Saturday, Oct. 3, Calgary time. Tickets are $15, and available at the DJD website.
Cooper remains hopeful that there will still be live dance performances taking place at DJD’s dance centre on 12th Avenue S.W. in early 2021.
“We would love to bring you a social distanced live performance in our theatre in January,” she said. “We will be creating something we hope you will be able to attend – maybe it will have to be virtual, maybe you will see it next season, it will be small, it will be intimate.”
The company, formed in the early 1980’s, took its inspiration from Black artists.
“We are guests in this form based in Black American culture,” she said, “And the African-American experience, we’ve always known we were guests, never claimed authorship, instead have worked hard to be respectful and responsible with our privilege. The times (we live in) ask us to work harder, to do better, we rise to the challenge, we owe it to jazz and the people who birthed it and evolved it.”
