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Dance Initiative offering Self-Guided Tour of Carbondale Dance

Four local dance companies, including the Sopris Soarers, Alya Howe, CoMotion Dance Company, and Claudia and Erik Peña will be performing

Dance Initiative is offering a Self-Guided Tour of Carbondale Dance Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. at “unique outdoor locations.”
Jeremy Hutchins productions

It’s not quite time for dancing in the streets, but there will be dancing in the outdoors Friday evening in Carbondale.

Dance Initiative is offering a Self-Guided Tour of Carbondale Dance Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. at “unique outdoor locations.” Four local dance companies, including the Sopris Soarers, Alya Howe, CoMotion Dance Company, and Claudia and Erik Peña will be performing.

The Tour is the brainchild of Dance Initiative Executive Director Megan Janssen who said she was just trying to find a way of doing something outside while the recent warm weather affords that opportunity.



“In the time of Covid, with everything being canceled, one of the things I’ve gained is some patience and more ability to handle logistics because nothing else is happening,” Janssen said. “It felt like a worthwhile thing to put some time and energy into just one performance this year.”

The idea is for small groups, or “quarantine pods” as Janssen called them, to buy their tickets in advance, after which they will be sent a schedule and a route of where they’re going, when they need to be there, when the performance is, who’s performing, and other pertinent information about social distancing and face covering.



“We’re limited to 20 people per performance,” Janssen said.

The event has turned out to be extremely popular, and as such, Janssen said it is close to being sold out, although she is creating a waitlist in case they get some last-minute cancelations.

The Sopris Soarers, which are well known locally for their performances at Mountain Fair and the Green is the New Black fashion show, will present an aerial routine they’re calling “As One.” The Soarers will have up to nine or 10 performers that will include both adults and children.

Alya Howe of the Alya Howe Performing Arts Umbrella will present a performance based on a body of work called “Disappeared; Women.” She’ll be working with Cynthia Giannini, a dancer from Denver who performed with Joffrey Ballet for a number of years. Giannini will perform solo while Howe accompanies the dance with spoken word.

Claudia and Erik Pena are Latin dancers who study and teach bachata among other dances like hip hop and salsa in the valley. They’ll be performing a dance they call “Confiesale,” which will feature some new tricks they’ve learned.

CoMotion Dance Company will be working with professional violinist MinTze Wu. The performance, called “Collective Kaddish,” will be a collaboration between the dancers and Wu, and is based on a piece of music and a piece of poetry that Wu wrote. It will have collective choreography that has a more modern feel, Janssen said, and the poetry will be performed by the group “Voices,” — a local nonprofit youth voices project.

jbear@postindependent.com


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