ACDT presents Motown Memories

From Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre:

What: Motown Memories
Who: Sharon Cooper and Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre
When: April 29, 30, 2016 at 8:00 pm and May 1, 2016 at 6:00 pm
Where: BeBe Theatre, 20 Commerce Street, Asheville, NC (828)254-2621
How much: $18 for general audience, $15 for students and seniors
More information: acdt.org

Sharon Cooper and Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre are proud to present “Motown Memories.” An exciting, entertaining, moving evening of new contemporary dance at the BeBe Theatre April 29 and 30 at 8:00 pm and May 1 at 6:00 pm. The concert features new work by long time ACDT dancer, Sharon Cooper. Memories of road trips, funnel cakes, heartache, healing and much more will be paired with the music of legendary Motown artists including, The Temptations, Otis Redding and Edwin Starr. This promises to be a wonderful evening of beautiful dancing, colorful costumes and amazing music that will have the audience dancing in their seats and reminiscing about their own memories to the unforgettable songs of Motown.

Sharon Cooper began dancing at the age of 5 at Art-is-House in her hometown of Winston-Salem, NC. She continued her dance studies at UNCSA, first in the after school Preparatory Program and later in the high school contemporary dance department. In 2000, Cooper graduated with honors from UNC-Charlotte, receiving her BA degree in Dance and Communication Studies. After graduation, she moved to Asheville, NC where she began dancing with ACDT.

As a member of ACDT, Cooper has performed throughout North Carolina as well as across the southeastern United States. She has also had the incredible opportunity to perform internationally several times in Havana and Holguin, Cuba as well as Merida and Mexico City, Mexico. Cooper has become increasingly more involved in choreography and the production of shows and has done both in many of ACDT’s Dance Salad productions. In 2015, Cooper along with four other local dancers cofounded The Accidentals, an improvisational dance collective, focusing on making dance accessible to all people and performing in nontraditional spaces. She has also worked as a guest artist with other local artists in Asheville.

Motown Memories was inspired by family road trips and the Motown music her parents played (and continue to play to this day) on every one of those trips as well as at home, parties, family gatherings and holidays. Cooper developed a love of this music at an early age and it has become an important part of her and her history. To create this show, she selected some of her most favorite Motown songs that bring back very clear memories, feelings, experiences, emotions and images to tell her story, and to create new memories for herself, the dancers and the audience during the performance.