Footlight Dance Centre is celebrating 30 years of dance with “Dance Tapestry,” a weaving of eight professional artists from the Seattle area to perform contemporary work.
The celebration will be held Sunday, July 13, at 7 p.m. at the Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater at the Community Campus in Hailey.
Tickets are $10 for open seating for adults and $8 for students. They are available at Iconoclast Books in Ketchum, from the front office at the Community Campus or at the door.
Highlighting the performance will be two of the dancers originally from the Footlight program, Molly Sides and Ali Maricich. Sides is a Seattle-based sound, movement and film artist whose curiosity and attraction to movement has led to adventures in performance, commercials and film. Sides attended Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in dance.
Since then, she has had the pleasure to dance with SaltHorse (Seattle), tEEth (Portland), Lingo (Seattle) and The New Animals (Seattle). She has choreographed and presented her own work at Velocity’s Fall Kick Off, Next Fest NW, Make A Scene, The Pink Door, On the Boards, Vermillion and various settings throughout the West Coast.
Maricich also studied at Cornish College of the Arts, earning her bachelor’s degree in dance. She studied in Europe at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, ImPlusTanz: Vienna International Dance Festival, and has attended several other dance intensives around the world. Currently, Maricich is working with The Pendleton House as a founding member in Seattle, Wash., as well as in community art facilitation.
A second part of the performance will be a reunion of Footlight dancers. A commissioned piece choreographed by Sides and Maricich will include nearly 20 dancers.
Dirty Feet Dance Co., a local group under the direction of former Foolight alum Alysha Oclassen, will present a piece with dancers who have either graduated or taught within the Footlight program.
There will be two short workshop pieces by students, the next generation of dancers, who will be studying with the dancers from Seattle. The five-day workshop allows students the opportunity to share with professionals the art form of dance, the movement expression of the human spirit.
Since obtaining her bachelor’s degree in dance choreography from Cornish College of the Arts, Amy Johnson has been working as a dancer, performer and choreographer in the Seattle area. She has a love of Charlie Chaplin and Kurt Vonnegut. Her choreography has been presented by Velocity Dance Center, Seattle International Dance Festival, On the Boards (NW New Works, 12 Minutes Max), Centerstage Theatre, and the Seattle Center at the Intiman Playhouse Studio. Johnson is a Pacific Northwest native.
Calie Swedberg is a dance artist based in Seattle. She is currently a core member of performance group Saint Genet, and is otherwise performing in any show she can find her way into, while considering the pursuit of a graduate degree in dance/movement therapy. Her most memorable performances to date are “Daylight (for Minneapolis)” with Sarah Michelson at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (2006); “Paradisiacal Rites” with Saint Genet at the Donau Festival in Krems, Austria (2013); and backup dancing for Weird Al Yankovic at the Minnesota State Fair (2010).
Markeith Wiley learns by osmosis. The dancer/choreographer freely indulges his appetite for art and culture, constantly redefining himself. He has been in Seattle for more than seven years and has worked with a number of artists of various mediums. Wiley is also the choreographer and artistic director of The New Animals. The work of The New Animals has been seen on stages, in art galleries, houses and site-specific locations all over Seattle.
Mariah Martens began studying dance in her hometown of Denver. She achieved a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts where she studied under Pat Hon, Iyun Harrison, Alia Swersky, Deborah Wolf, Wade Madsen and Tonya Lockyer. She was also given the opportunity to work with nationally renowned artists such as Camille A. Brown, Juel D. Lane, Ariel Freedman, Larry Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott. She has performed in the Seattle International Dance Festival as well as Velocity Dance Center’s Fall Kick Off. Martens is also a founding member and works on the development team of The Pendleton House. Her choreography has been presented at Cornish and Velocity Dance Center.
Sean Tomerlin began his dance career at the age of 19 in Fresno, Calif. He received his bachelor’s degree in dance from Cornish College of the Arts and has danced professionally for the Fresno Ballet, Ballet Met, Arc Dance Productions, Thodos Dance Chicago, Dance Kaleidoscope and Lingo. In his free time, Tomerlin enjoys camping, playing music, reading and gardening. Currently, he teaches creative movement and modern dance in Seattle and on Bainbridge Island. He is about to graduate from Cortiva Institute of Massage.
Babette Pendleton McGready is curator, choreographer and founder of The Pendelton House in Seattle, Wash. She has her bachelor’s degree in dance from Cornish College of the Arts. Her work has been seen in multi-media projects throughout Seattle and Baltimore.
Call 578-5462, write to footlightdance@gmail.com or go to www.footlightdancecentre.com for more information.
Party time
- Baroque Dance Master Class for adults: With Mariel McEwan. Thursday, July 10 7-8:30 p.m. $12.
Performance: Sunday, July 13, at 7 p.m.
Where: Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater, Hailey.
Tickets: $10.