City Dance Ensemble on Programming

In this post from the City Dance Ensemble’s blog, the author discusses the process and challenges of programming the company’s upcoming concert. Here is an excerpt:

“ At the end of a long conversation yesterday with Chris (CDE rehearsal director and choreographer-in-residence) we got to talking about programming order for the upcoming concert at Montgomery College on February 25 – 27. The discussion is one we have before every show — and often have both many times before a show and during a concert run, when we have made major changes to show order during runs, or on tour. We’ve come close a couple of times to changing show order during a show.

Program order is an odd thing. Its like — but somehow far more important than — song order on an album. The way you string a concert together, especially a repertory company concert, dramatically affects the entire way a show is seen, and can alter totally the success of failure of a concert as a whole, and individual dances as works in and of themselves. Sounds silly probably, but its way, way true.

Yesterday’s conversation reminded me yet again that its so often the soundscape, not just (or even) the choreographic landscape, that drives a concert. You would think a dance concert would be dominant in its attention to visuals, but you ignore, or undervalue, sound at your peril. This is never more true than in a concert where all, or almost all, of the work is brand-new.

The dominant dances on the concert program for “Hold Your Breath Until The End” are new ones from Chris and myself (in my case in collaboration with the company). When we got to programming conversations we found we weren’t talking about how the dances looked, but how they sounded. Would the way they are shaped by their scores blend – how should they be separated — how should they be programmed.”

Click here to read the complete post.

Image in the post is is City Dance Ensemble dancers.