Telluride Dance Collective: “The Bash,” 2/21!

15 Feb Telluride Dance Collective: “The Bash,” 2/21!

The Telluride Dance Collective (TDC) presents its first annual winter fundraiser. “The Bash” takes place Friday, February 21, at the historic Sheridan Opera House. The theme of the evening is “Supernatural.” Doors, 8 p.m. Show time, 9 p.m. Dance party, 9:30 p.m. Tickets, $15, general admission, here.

Telluride Dance Collective’s “The Bash”:

TDC’s freshman winter fundraiser promises to be a “Supernatural” evening, a seductive hybrid of performance, dance party (with DJ Wombat), and costume contest. Guests are invited to join in the fun by dressing up in their best otherworldly costume to enter in the contest and win great prizes.

Dancers and performers in “The (Supernatural) Bash” 2020 include:

Stephanie Osane
Kelsey Trottier
Molly Wickwire-Sante
Erika Curry-Elrod
EK Bush
Cari Galbraith
Ali Griswold
Amy Boltee
Olivia Raymond
Tsubasa Yamada
Dean Muggeo
Tiffany Perry-Marks
Michelle Griffith
Jacque Garcia
Rachel Bellamy

All of the above, pretty as a picture (as follows):

TDC company members performing the choreography of the visiting Denver-based choreographer Edgar L. Page, courtesy, Sarah Swab.

Image courtesy Sarah Swab.

Erika Curry-Elrod & dancers in Mass Movement 2019, courtesy Sarah Swab.

Kelsey Trottier & dancers performing in Mass Movement 2019 to Ellen Bator’s choreography, courtesy Sarah Swab.

Michelle & Jacque Garcia, courtesy Sarah Swab.

“We are so excited to present this show,” said TDC regular Kelsey Trotter. “It features a variety of genres including contemporary, hip hop, bellydance, acro-dance, spiced with ecstatic and shamanic influences. We are taking the audience on an inter-dimensional journey. Within this ‘supernatural’ context we are moving across a spectrum of dualities, introducing contrasting archetypes of dark and destruction, light and creation. Our non-linear narrative is at once weird, sexy, scary, and maybe even funny. Each audience member will take away a different meaning from this show and, for me anyway, that is the beauty of dance.”

Dance in Telluride, a short history:

Music and film in Telluride became a thing over four decades ago in 1974, when the grassroots nonprofit that evolved into Telluride Arts birthed the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the Telluride Chamber Music Festival, and the Telluride Film Festival.

Dance in Telluride followed a few years later, but reached new heights of excellence when prima ballerina Valerie Madonia came to town in the 1990s.

Back in those halcyon days of movement, instigated by Madonia, a nonprofit known as the Telluride Society for the Performing Arts signed a five-year contract with the Joffrey Ballet, Madonia’s alma mater, establishing a summer residency for the internationally acclaimed troupe.

Dance in Telluride bore fruit: even recalcitrant husbands and sports-addicted couch potatoes eventually succumbed to the technical panache and sensuous lines of dancers whose hands and feet seemed to articulate scripts of their own.

Then, when Madonia left town to teach at the Colorado Ballet Academy in Denver, Palm Arts Dance took over the programming and brought a spin-off of the esteemed New York City Ballet, BalletCollective, to town for another residency that included more engaging performances.

Over the years such choices meant, until relatively recently, it was “carpetbaggers” en pointe, outsiders not locals, who leveraged the world-renowned natural beauty and quirky vibe of the Telluride region to create new works.

That all changed with the Telluride Dance Collective, a company of homies with talent to burn.

Telluride Dance Collective, a brief history:

With the help of a grant from Telluride Arts, the TDC was founded in 2016 by directors Danielle Jenkins and Stephanie Osan.

The first September show was a 40-minute original work entitled “The Way Between.” After that launch, TDC entered a partnership with the Palm Theatre, offering classes for adults. With the continued support of Kathy Jepson and Palm Arts Dance, the Telluride Dance Collective has grown into a robust community of local dancers, which has performed over its short history at a variety of venues and events including, but not limited to Telluride Theatre productions. In fact troupe’s artistry, originality, and grace is also regularly display at major nonprofit events such as:

TASP’s Blue Party

Telluride Mushroom Festival

Literary Burlesque

Telluride Arts’ Art & Architecture weekend

Mountainfilm

Telluride Fire Festival

San Miguel Resource Center’s Chocolate Lovers’ Fling

Telluride Arts’ First Thursday Art Walk

“Generally we work with a variety of local and visiting dancers and offer a variety of classes year-round ranging from contemporary to modern, hip-hop, tap, belly dancing and salsa,” explained Trotter. “And we are always open to bringing in new teachers and choreographers. Most of our classes take place at our home base at the dance studio in the Palm complex. However, this winter we partnered with the Liberty Bar to host ‘Salsa Sundays,’ which will pick back up again for the month of March.”

Soon the Telluride Dance Collective will be everywhere you want to be as the troupe’s pas de deux with Telluride continues to garner rave reviews.

“I have been involved with TDC since the first show and have danced and choreographed with them as much as possible over the years,” said Molly Wickwire Sante. “It’s been amazing to have a dance ‘home’ in Telluride. I have watched over the 20 years I have lived in town as various dance enthusiasts, groups, and efforts to create a dance community have come and gone. TDC is thriving because it is homegrown and has a base of dedicated dancers at its core – and the hope of building a large dance community as its mission. My favorite part of TDC is how inclusive it is and the work they have done to support and provide performance opportunities for dancers at all levels. ‘The Bash’ is going to be so much fun. We will blur the line between performance and create an intentional, otherworldly dance zone for all,”