The Dance Complex at Starlight Square

As a fellow anchor institution of the Central Square Cultural District, The Dance Complex is excited and eager to collaborate with Central Square Theater and Improv Boston to bring programming to Starlight Square this summer into fall in Central Square. We appreciate the amazing and lightning speed work of the Central Square Business Improvement District, our friends at City Hall and the supporting organizations and individual donors who value live performance especially in a time as we learn to leave our isolation.

Starlight Square is a placekeeping initiative in Central Square, Cambridge. Starlight is a temporary intervention that transforms a municipal parking lot for cars into a place for people, using scaffolding and scrim to frame space for an outdoor amphitheatre with physically-distant seating, a courtyard for dining and dialogue, a community center for summer learning and food distribution, and the Central Square Farmers Market, currently held on Mondays. It will immediately increase Central Square’s capacity for outdoor dining, worship, commerce, learning, and performance. Generously sponsored by ReevX Labs, the Starlight stage can safely host 150 for dance, theatre, and other cultural programs during COVID-19. In observance of current state regulations, events at Starlight Square will be limited to 50 people until otherwise indicated.

With the artists and the works we are bringing to the Starlight performance space, The Dance Complex is intent on illuminating where we’ve been and where we are heading, with COVID-19 as a catalyst to look at the deeper issues we face. We are breaking habits, looking at interruption as a necessity in a time when we can rebuild dance and performance- and community – with more intention: raising challenging questions through words and song, through movement and dance. There can be reflection and there can be celebration! With the help of guest curators Jimena Bermejo, Marianne Harkless Diabete and Aysha Upchurch – all exceptional and unique women with complementary visions for dance in our world – we are able to bring the transformational promise of dance to Starlight.

Join us for dynamic experiences that will speak, sing, induce laughter and tears, that will move and will move you to a new version of you. In addition to performances, we are thrilled to offer movement-based classes at Starlight in a variety of genres featuring a special partnership with Jean Appolon Expressions.

PERFORMANCES AT STARLIGHT:

The Davis Sisters’ Family Gathering, A Comeback Show on the Starlight Stage

Friday, August 28, and Saturday August 29, 2020, 8:00 – 9:15PM

Kicking off The Dance Complex’s movement-based programs in the new Starlight Square, join The Davis Sisters (Joy Davis and Alexander Davis) and their luminous, notorious, and otherwise respectable extended family for an evening of eclectic performance happenings on the Starlight Stage.

At the threshold of dance, theater, comedy, and installation, The Davis Sisters create experiences in which performers and audiences are invited to contemplate humanity, enjoy absurdity, and delight in physical and verbal articulation. Through rigorous imagination, improvisation and ridiculousness, they courageously and insightfully dare to create scenarios in which they perform magnified versions of themselves.

Funded in part by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies.

Phoenix

Sunday, August 30, 2020, 8:00-9:15 PM

Bringing together original experimental music, dance, and virtual storytelling, our neighbors at Studio at 550 together with Violet Nox sew together an evening of performance with themes centering on transformation and process. Produced and curated by Callie Chapman (director of Studio at 550) this evening will be sure to create an experience which you have yearned for through this crisis. It is more about walking this journey together, than experiencing it separately as individuals.

It Goes Like This…

Friday, September 11, 2020, 8:00 – 9:15PM

“It Goes Like This…” brings live storytelling to the next level! Imagine a Moth meeting an open mic to create a multi-modal storytelling experience… a little dancing here, a little music there, and who knows what else! Local artists including Yani Batteau, Kara Fili, Joan Green, Ashley Rose Salomon, Tashawn Taylor, J. Michael Winward and more will share some personal stories in all sorts of ways. Time permitting, audience members will have a chance to share as well. No doubt there will be lots to witness. Whether you come to be entertained, to learn, to support or to tell a story of your own, IGLT welcomes you!

The Wondertwins: BLACK

Saturday, September 12, and Sunday, September 13 , 8:00 – 9:15 PM

The Wondertwins, famed veteran hip-hop dance duo from Boston, perform their newest piece, BLACK. BLACK explores the traumatizing effects of police violence towards the Black community by incorporating dance with audio and video from major icons such as MLK and Tupac, to victims, their relatives and police officers speaking out about today’s police violence against black communities. Initially conceived in 2017, BLACK is a dynamic reflection of the current cultural landscape in the United States. This piece was partially developed through The Dance Complex’s CATALYSTS residency program.

Tiny & Short: Micro Performances

Friday, September 25, Saturday, September 26, & Sunday, September 27, 2020, 7:30 – 8:45 PM

Performing artists investigate the constrictions of space and time as a means to expand the strictures and structures of their form- movement, comedy, music and spoken word may find new freedom through tight spaces and time limits! In the open air of Starlight Stage, Tiny &

Short: Micro Performances immerses audiences in the exciting and dynamic results of these creative challenges.

Performances take shape in three ways: 1 minute solos; taking place solely on a 4 x 4 foot stage; and “short” works of 8 minutes or less. With curatorial associate Jimena Bermejo, a performance artist who pushes the boundaries of intimacy between audience and artist, offering her fresh perspective this event will create an environment where the definition of performance will be challenged and the range of works will offer something for everyone.

Black Dance Boston: Racines Black Dance Festival

Wednesday, October 14, Thursday, October 15, 2020, 7:30 – 8:45 PM *subject to change*

In 2016, local artists Baindu Conte-Coomber, Marianne Harkless Diabate and Mckersin Previlus embarked on the journey of creating a dance festival that brings together artists from different

dance styles, all connected by their African roots, all having had a major influence on American culture. With the mission of bringing communities together, and increasing cultural awareness and understanding, Racines was born. In its fourth year, Racines Black Dance Festival brings Boston-area artists to the Starlight Stage with programming curated by festival co-founder Marianne Harkless Diabate.

Black Dance Boston: Hip Hop: An Elemental Love:

Friday, October 16, and Saturday, October 17, 7:30 – 8:45 PM *subject to change*

Boston artists unite to demonstrate love for Hip Hop dance and culture. Dancer, choreographer, artist, and educator, guest curator Aysha Upchurch (“The Dancing Diplomat”) uses her background informed by dances from the African diaspora — jazz, tap, body percussion, African, Hip Hop — to bring together artists from different areas of Hip Hop culture. Share in the love of Hip Hop in this multimedia celebration.

The Dance Complex Teaching Artists & Musicians Concert

Thursday, October 22, 2020, 7:30 – 8:45 PM *subject to change*

Showcasing a wide range of movement styles, this performance celebrates the vibrancy of the variety that occurs at The Dance Complex every day. Experience new and recent works by Teaching Artists, performed by both professional and dedicated student dancers, in this eclectic program. New to the Starlight edition of this program is a celebration of the musicians of The Dance Complex – you may have heard them previously while out and about in Central Square!

Routes & Roots

Friday, October 23, and Saturday, October 24, 2020, 7:30 – 8:45 PM *subject to change*

The Dance Complex presents Routes & Roots, two evenings gathering spectacularly talented dancers and choreographers from throughout New England and beyond on one stage. Routes & Roots considers multiple dimensions the geographic and creative journeys: of the artist’s own journey as individual; of the dance genres presented and their inevitable evolution and mingling; and how ancestry and legacies create maps- most often unintentionally- for us to follow. Cambridge’s own Jean Appolon and his company Jean Appolon Expressions will be featured.

WORKSHOPS AND CLASSES AT STARLIGHT:

AfroCuban Folklore with Nadia Issa

Mondays 12PM – 1PM

Open Level Contemporary Class with rotating educators from Jean Appolon Expressions

Tuesdays 10:30AM – 12PM

Modern 55+ with Andy Taylor

Wednesdays 10AM – 12PM

TBD/Rotating Workshop

Thursdays 11AM – 12:30PM

Haitian Folkloric with Jean Appolon

Saturdays 1PM – 2:30PM