DDT in When Oct Goes Kassi Tiedjens

DC’s 2nd Oldest Ballet Company Presents Its 17th Season

DDT In The Road Maurissa Powell Joel Kioko

Image: Maurissa Powell and Joel Kioko in Short’s The Road

Oct 22th, 2024 – Washington, DC
DC’s 2nd Oldest Ballet Company Presents Its 17th Season

Contact:
Shawn Short, Director
202-540-8338
sshort@ngcfddt.org

Dissonance Dance Theatre presents its opening show, Fall Forward, as part of its 17th theatrical season at Atlas Performing Arts Center. Dissonance Dance Theatre is a professional company of Ngoma Center for Dance, and its official school is The Ngoma School.  A mixed bill of contemporary ballet, to the works of award-winning Principal Choreographer and Founding Director Shawn Short. This year’s program features the music of Mikael Karlsson, Black Violin, John Legend, Rapsody Macklemore, Nancy Wilson. DDT will also perform their classic works When October Goes, The Road, and Home.

The company presents three world premieres: Push/Punch, Life is Two Fold, and Groove Downbeat Twig.

Push (2024)

A work interested in the duality of opposites, Short’s Push is a contemporary pointe-work ballet partially inspired by William Foresythe’s dynamic work In the Middle Somewhat Elevated and Newton’s laws of motion. Danced to Mikael Karlsson’s musical score, Push briskly moves through an ambient and sharp score that sends the dancer through space while merging neo-classic balletic style with modern dance fluidity.

Life Is Two Fold (2024)

A percussive and syncopated pointe work inspired by our human desire to breathe in and share our excitement for life, Life is Two Fold is inspired by its musical score created by Black Violin, John Legend, and Rapsody Macklemore, and Ryan Lewis, segmented into three sections (Seek, Understanding, Anticipate).

Groove Downbeat Twig (2024)

Fluid bodies move to the drum rhythm in Short’s soft-shoe ballet Groove Downbeat Twig. House music adorns your ears, as the dancers fill the stage with “get down” while “feeling it”. Africanistic movement, club dance, and classical ballet emulsify, bringing sweat to the hot bodies on stage. Performed to the music of German multi-instrumentalist, producer, and DJ Christian Prommer, Groove Downbeat Twig makes slender bodies feel it deep inside.

When October Goes (2020)

As the years go by, so does summer. In Short’s When October Goes, a solo female dancer reflects on her life through memories of childhood, love affairs, and the coming future. Danced to the music of Nancy Wilson and filled with moments of excitement, sass, beauty, and vulnerability When October Goes is a timeless performance demonstrating the joy of experiencing life. 

DDT in When Oct Goes Kassi Tiedjens

Image: Kassi Tiedjens in Short’s When October Goes

The Road (2013)

A man treads the journey of life and finds challenges and strife in Short’s The Road. Danced as a soft-shoe male ballet solo married to a wonderful duet, The Road is dance theatre with expressive moments lost, longing and stillness. During the male dancer’s solo, he finds solace in a companion, and together they tread the journey of interaction together. The Road is performed to the emotional score of Italian pianist and composer Ludovico Einaudi.

Home (2018)

Light the stage fantastic, as dancers take the stage with zest and joy. Home, a dance work choreographed by Short, is a contemporary ballet filled with friendship and community spirit. Danced to the spirt-filled score composed by Italian composer Ezio Bosso, Home is a “feel good”, large ensemble work that reminds us that positive energy is infectious.

“ We are excited to bring the Washington, DC area, a new season of contemporary dance”, says DDT’s Founder Shawn Short. “DC has lost many professional dance companies since the COVID-19 pandemic. We are fortunate and grateful to be still able to take the stage.”

DDT’s is a Resident Arts Partner with Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE (1333 H St NE, Washington, DC 20002).

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Ngoma Center for Dance is the home of Dissonance Dance Theatre (founded in 2007) and its award-winning programs based in the Washington, DC area. DDT is named “one of the 11 small-but-mighty dance companies outside of LA and NYC” by Dance Spirit Magazine. Evoking emotional experiences in the audiences we touch, is the only East Coast, nationally recognized, Black-managed contemporary ballet company between NYC and ATL. For more information, visit www.ngcfddt.org

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