December 28, 2010

 Photo used courtesy Georgie Retzer

      On the night after Christmas in downtown Denver, I had the delightful opportunity to experience an evening of music and dance with a decidedly Steampunk flavor called "The Con: A Steamphunk Reverie." The theatrical performance was a collaboration between a three-piece string group called The Gristle Gals and the Ascential Dance Theater Colorado.

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December 10, 2010

     Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, The Gristle Gals and Ascential Dance Theatre Colorado cordially invite music lovers, dance aficionados, art enthusiasts, fashion devotees and the Steampunk community to examine five characters who fall victim to the effects of the world they occupy, in The Con - A Steamphunk Reverie.

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Posted: 12/09/2010 12:00:00 AM MST

Photos by David Jennings

    Here is a sentence that has never before appeared in the Enterprise: a Broomfield dance troupe is producing an original Steampunk dance opera at Lannie`s Clocktower Cabaret in downtown Denver.

Science fiction fandom has a tendency to fracture into tribal factions with minutely narrow focuses. Steampunk, for those not in the know, is a sub-genre of speculative fiction set in a typically steam-powered society that somehow manages Jules Vern-like technology without electricity. Think the giant steam-powered spider in "Wild, Wild West" starring Will Smith. Or now, one also can think of Ascential Dance`s "The Con -- A Steamphunk Reverie."

September 17, 2010 

Photo used courtesy of Caleb Winter Massey

     Atypical and unconventional yet creative and unforgettable, the ladies of Ascential Dance and the Gristle Gals are guaranteed to give you a performance that will change your views of the arts and, quite possibly, yourselves.  But regardless of what shifts in mental paradigm are overcome, this is one performance that you’ll wish you’d seen multiple times, so you might as well start at the beginning.

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September 12, 2010

Leslie Merrill & Alfred Smith

in Augusto Soledade's

Diaries of an Outlaw, 2009

Photo by Heather Gray Photography

     You all know the feeling because we’ve all had it at one point or another.  It’s that fleeting feeling that happens before you leave your house and make the drive to take a dance class.  It’s the thought that tells you it would be okay to go ahead and stay home.  But, dedicated to dance as you are, you stifle the voice go to the studio and take class only to be shamed at the end knowing that you could have stayed home.  Now you are out as much as $18 and 2 hours, and the quality of your day is just as stagnant, if not worse.  I’m going to say it, even though, you’re probably tired of hearing it.  We’re in a recession and artists know this more than most, and there simply isn’t time or money to lend to unproductive experiences.

1) Jennifer Archer, Ascential Dance

Jennifer Archer is an accomplished dancer and choreographer, as well as,  the founder of the Broomfield based dance company Ascential Dance.  I don’t want to be that writer that thinks in cliches, however, I admit, I briefly considered beginning or ending this particular description with something like, “You might need a passport to attend one of Archer’s classes.” I thought against it for the purposes of my literary credibility.  Archer has called her style JAM, which stands for Jazz, African, Modern.  An absolutely delicious combination of traditional modern, classic and contemporary jazz, with a hint of African and Latin elements.  Attendees have the opportunity to experience JAM and occasionally learn some of the company’s repertoire.  In 90 minutes, dancers improve their technique and strengthen their bodies, in a class that will make your heart happy in every way.    Ascential offers multiple classes for various experience levels and ages.  For more information visit: http://www.ascentialdance.com/

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April 07, 2010

Jess Eggart & Jessica Garcia

in Jen Archer's

Sistine, 2010

Photo by Dominique Payannet

     Having a big dance organization is great, but it takes more than that to make what one can call an arts "community."  It is the off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway scene that makes New York a theatre Mecca. There, fans of the Great White Way can find experimental theater, the Actor`s Studio, soap operas or a one-act play festival.  It is in dance that Broomfield has come closest to forging an artistic identity. Not only does it have Ballet Nouveau Colorado making footprints beyond the confines of the county borders, but a slew of other dance groups and schools as well.

 November 20, 2009

Jen Archer in Gone, 2009

Photo by Heather Gray Photography

     Broomfield, Colorado’s Ascential Dance Theatre Colorado promises new, original works that span various genres of dance, music and culture in their latest concert called The Strangest Distance Between Any Two Points. The show will premiere at DL Parsons Theatre in Northglenn, CO on Saturday, December 5th at 7:30 PM and continues through Sunday, December 6th at 3 PM. It will include dance, theatre and vocal arts works featuring the choreography of local, visiting and transplanted dance-makers Jennifer Fagan Archer (MIA, ATL, Bermuda, CO), Rainey Welch (NYC), Augusto Soledade (NY, MIA), Candess Giyan (ATL, CO) and Leslie Merrill, MFA (CO, SF).

Ascential Dance fuses traditional, contemporary and ethnic dance forms in both their classes and choreography while incorporating physicality, emotion, and storytelling to secure a common thread and resonate to audience members of all ages. Miami’s Brazilian-born Augusto Soledade’s distinctive Afro-Fusion style incorporates elements of Afro-Brazilian and contemporary dance to create vibrant, inspired choreography. His work, The Diaries of an Outlaw (2004), which played in Miami during the Florida Dance Festival 2005, is inspired by the life of the 1930’s legendary outlaws Maria Bonita and Lampiao of Brazil. As in much of Soledade’s repertory, the blend of dance styles found in ‘Diaries’ yields a piece that is “at once athletic and nuanced, both percussive and fluid, as it captures the rhythms of the outlaw life.“

According to Rainey Welch, her piece, It Takes One, illustrates “women, where they are, where they want to go, and their nurturing spirit versus the reality of life and what it requires.” Forever in Three Days, by Candess Giyan is a comment on the pressures and stereo types placed on individuals by themselves, unhealthy relationships, and society. Leslie Merrill will debut a vignetted series of devices that reveal the internal hassles men & women endure while dealing with romantic feelings while local artist Jennifer Fagan Archer will premiere her new solo, Gone, which explores a journey into homelessness.

The Strangest Distance Between Any Two Points will have a 15-minute intermission and concessions will be available to raise funds for our scholarship program. Bring the family and enjoy an evening bursting with energy and invention.  Tickets are available online pre-sale or at the door for a suggested donation of $10 - $20.

Where: DL Parsons Theatre in Northglenn, CO.  (Off of 1-25 & 120^th)

Tickets : Suggested donation $10 - $20.

www.ascentialdance.com/tickets or call Jennifer Archer @ 303-410-6633.

Josh Fink, Kristi Peterson & Diana Tobias

in Jen Archer's Ghost Dance, 2009

Photo by Mrs. K

     Ascential Dance Theatre Colorado is all about originality. Friday and Saturday nights, it will perform its debut company show "l:Begin Ag@in:l," which promises to be like no other dance performance.The company is eclectic, original, at times quirky and purposefully educational.  Ascential Dance Theatre can't even define itself."We all come together very well," said executive director and company dancer Tobi Johnson-Compton. "I don't know how to describe it. It's a melting-pot style."