Five choreographers and more than 25 dancers recently participated in the 48 Hour Dance Project, an event where performers raced against the clock and competed to create a movement/dance piece to be performed for a live audience.
Starting at midnight on Jan. 29, each choreographer had exactly 48 hours to develop, lead and perform a dance piece. Participants represented a wide range of training styles and dance techniques, including B-boying/ B-girling (break dancing), salsa and modern dance, and embarked on the two-day journey. Each on a mission to create the best piece in the show and claim the cash prize for first place. Throughout the final performance, three adjudicators critiqued what they saw and kept a score for each piece.
The brave choreographers who presented work on Feb. 1 at the BeBe Theatre were:
• Brandi Hand, who danced for Louisiana State University and was the assistant choreographer for the NFL New Orleans Saints dance team. Hand’s piece was titled: “Shawty Get Loose.”
• Giles Collard, the co-director of Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre, created a piece titled: “Cream of the Coconut,” which was “conceived on the beach of Progresso in Mexico.”
• Maria “La Guajira” Voisin, the director of Salseros 828, a local Latin dance company, presented “Si Se Puede, Que Se Sepa.”
• Claire Elizabeth Barratt, the director of Cilla Vee–Life Arts an organization that specializes in inter-disciplinary arts collaboration, choreographed “Whenever I Hear the Name Bill, I Taste Burnt Onions: An Exploration of Synesthesia.”
• Joseph H. Adams, a break dancer and teacher with Hunab Kru, created a piece titled, “Evolution.”
Taking first place in the competition was Barratt for “Whenever I Hear the Name Bill, I Taste Burnt Onions: An Exploration of Synesthesia.” Second place was Collard’s “Cream of the Coconut.” And in third place came Voisin with “Si Se Puede, Que Se Sepa.”
Check out the Xpress exclusive photo gallery of the competition.
— Aiyanna Sezak-Blatt
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