CORE at Cucalorus

Thalian Hall

This week, CORE has traveled to Wilmington, North Carolina to participate in the Cucalorus Film Festival. The dancers have created a piece to accompany a film by Company Manager Patton White. Their work will be shown at Dance-alorus, which is the official opener of the Cucalorus Film Festival; during this event, dancers and choreographers will be presenting work that pairs film and dance, shown at the historic Thalian Hall.

Following the show is an after-party at the Bellamy Mansion, where CORE will perform a site-specific work for the guests of the soirée.

Company Member Josh Rackliffe on the steps of Bellamy Mansion

View of Masonboro Sound, as seen from the backyard where the dancers are being housed

Finishing up the first week of rehearsal after our break last week...

We are getting ready for Willmington, NC to participate in the Cucalorus Film Festival specifically the Dance-A-Lorus. Beautiful, intriguing, moving pictures are going to be paired with live movement on stage. We had a blast just playing and getting silly while finding movement structures and meaning for this piece. Letting go and diving into absolute ridiculousness brought lightness, laughter and a quite fun dance.

Houston's Monarch School kicks off its seventh year as part of Dynamic X-Change

At the Monarch School in Houston, the beginning of CORE’s seventh year bringing Dynamic X-Change to their students has been fun and adventurous. Led by CORE's DXC Teaching Artist, local performer and choreographer Leslie Scates, the students at Monarch were thrilled to be having "dance class" with "Miss Leslie" again. The kids have been teaching her Gangnam style and The Wobble, and she's showing them moves from her generation as part of the new flash mob style format we're testing this fall.

This is a true collaboration with the kids and staff at Monarch to create an evolving class structured to facilitate increased interaction and engagement, which can be challenging for these kids, most of whom are on the Autism Spectrum. Nearly all of the students are enjoying the fast pace, repetitive moves, and popular music Leslie incorporates. About her first session back at Monarch, she said, "Eyes lit up and moves started emerging everywhere in the room. We learned to dance collaboratively this morning, which is my favorite sport."

The classes have also moved to a new location on Monarch Campus. They are now in the Living Building which is a freestanding sustainable building. It is solar and wind powered. The space is open, roomy and has doors that open up for outside/inside living. The space is a delight and allows for students that "need to take a break" to sit outside on the decks and still see the class inside.

"I miss dancing and I like how we are doing it again. I like the feeling of dancing and it is really fun." - Monarch student

The Monarch School is dedicated to providing an innovative, therapeutic education for individuals with neurological differences—such as those associated with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder, learning disabilities, Tourette Syndrome, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, traumatic brain injury and seizure disorders. Offering a learner-centered approach that helps students progress in Four Core Goal areas, The Monarch School is a service of the Monarch Institute for Neurological Differences, where we’re shaping lives from the inside out™.  http://www.monarchschool.org

And we're back, plus one!

And we're back! After a restorative and restful week off, we are back and busy in the studio! We haven't wasted a minute getting back in the swing of things - we started with a great class from Sue this morning (with lots of new faces, which we love!) and got right into remounting 'A World Too Wide' which we have had quite a long break from. 

We watched the gorgeous video from the performance in Houston at Miller Theatre, and reminisced on the experience before returning to some movement. The movement journeyed from foreign to familiar quickly and was deepened even more as we began to transfer the work into a new body: Kristen D'Addario! We are thrilled to have Kristen as a new part of our family and can't wait to experience a beautiful new process with her!

The company is also preparing for an upcoming tour to Wilmington, North Carolina where we will be performing at the Cucalorus Film Festival! Check us out Facebook and Instagram for more exciting updates and photos on that! #coredance