Danza Compania del Estado de Yucatan, a modern dance company based in Merida, Mexico, and Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre partner for the collaborative performance project Frank’s Got the Blues and Jaque Mate, an eclectic concert of modern dance and ballet that strives to “bridge the culture gaps in today’s society through dance.” Frank’s Got the Blues and Jaque Mate, will be performed on Friday, June 11 and Saturday, June 12 at Diana Wortham Theatre. It promises to be an entertaining and thought-provoking show exploring themes of power, pain, joy and love.
Dancers from Mexico will travel to Asheville for the performance and for a two-week creative residency with ACDT. The two companies prepared for the concert independently, and the show will feature two distinctly different programs: One part choreographed by ACDT director/founder Susan Collard, and the other by Javier Torres of the Mexican company.
Torres’ piece, Jaque Mate (Check Mate), is a dance inspired by the novel Thirst for Love, which was written in 1950 by Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. The novel tells the story of a women struggling with feelings of unrequited sexual longing and vengeful desires. Jaque Mate, as described in ACDT’s press release, is a “dramatic representation through dance of the Black Queen and the Black King and the struggle for power with the White Queen and White King and their young servant.”
Collard’s piece, Frank’s Got the Blue, is a ballet in which “all fears are confronted and reality is discovered.” The piece is about “love, desire, deception and betrayal.”
Through dance, ACDT is interested in exposing the emotional experiences that bind us, transcending language barriers and cultural differences to show the underlying commonalities between cultures. Dance, from the company’s perspective, is an ideal medium for such an investigation, communicating ideas in a physical, subject and universal way.
Frank’s Got the Blues and Jaque Mate will be performed on Friday, June 11 and Saturday, June 12, at 8 p.m. at Diana Wortham Theatre, 2 South Pack Square in downtown Asheville. $25/$20 students and seniors. Ticket info: www.dwtheatre.com or 257-4530. ACDT info: www.acdt.org.
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