Dance Charlotte!
October 23 and 24
McGlohen Theatre at Spirit Square in Uptown Charlotte


Dance Charlotte! is a repertory concert that consists of highly talented and innovative local and national emerging choreographers and companies. The adjudication process to select the performers for this event has toughened every year with the number of quality applications that the festival receives.

2009 Guidelines and Application - Click Here (please type in the pdf document)

2008 Performers

Greek Dreams
Choreography: Erick Hawkins (see Summer Dance Program for bio)
Staging: Katherine Duke (see Summer Dance Program for bio)
Performed by: Charlotte Dance Festival Repertory Ensemble

I don’t quite know whether these dances are dreams the old Greeks had, or my dreams of the Greeks. What a vivid kind of society they were that we still are enchanted by the way they looked at the world, and the way they let poetic images fountain forth. Even their language is the real starting point for our western languages, music, the muses, the gymnasium, geography. Those lovely people saw that the naked body, when it is nurtured to be what it can be, is a poem and a reflection of the Divine! The OKEANIDES in the play come to befriend Prometheus, bound to the mountain. They come like curls of the wind, foam of the edges of waves, and tips of clouds. YEAR DAMION is grateful that autumn comes and that one more spring is come again. How charming to see a young girl as a nymph creature appearing from a tree, or rock, or the sea, or THE GRASS OF MEADOWS! PLATO’S 2 ARE HALVES OF 1 dances out Plato’s myth that the original Being was split in half and love is the search of the two parts for each other, remembered through a line of e.e. Cummings.

CDF Repertory Ensemble Dancers
Caroline Calouche, Andrew Carr, Cristina Catalani, Jennifer Dice, Sarah Emery, Meg Griffin, Anna Jordan, Katie Matter, Katy Morton, Lauren Pegram and Abigail Pitchford

These dancers were selected through an audition and have volunteered their time and artistry to work with Katherine Duke on Greek Dreams.

Founded in 2005, Caroline Calouche & Co. evolved from years of independent choreography and performance in the U.S. and Europe. Caroline Calouche gathered a small group of 3 dancers to debut the contemporary dance company with Risk in her hometown of Gastonia, North Carolina . Since the initial performance, CC&Co. has performed in North Carolina, Charleston, Chattanooga and Fort Worth .

In 2006, Caroline Calouche began her explorations of blending contemporary dance with aerial dance in harness and fabric. The company's reputation for providing innovative, entertaining and edgy work was pushed to another level with the aerial work. With the increase of performances and touring, CC&Co. continues to connect to their home community along with the communities that they visit with their outreach programs in all age, ethnic and social groups.

Caroline Calouche & Co. was formed with the mission of creating an arts organization dedicated to producing and promoting contemporary dance choreography in conjunction with multi-disciplinary artistic collaborations. The goal is to build cross-cultural dialogs with dance as a means to unite and educate the global community through an exchange of philosophies and methods. The company is a non-profit organization recognized under the IRS tax law of 501(c)(3).

Visit our website at www.carolinecalouche.org for an updated performance schedule.

EEMotion
(Charlotte, NC)

E.E. Balcos began his company E.E.Motion in 2006. The company will be featured as a touring group in the 2008-2009 North Carolina Dance Festival season. As a performer he has toured nationally and internationally as a member of such companies as Shapiro & Smith Dance , Demetrius Klein Dance Company , Zenon Dance Company and has worked with nationally known choreographers including Danny Buraczeski, Ping Chong, Sean Curran, David Dorfman, Joe Goode, Dwight Rhoden, David Rousseve, Yacov Sharir, Stephanie Skura, and Bill Young. He has been awarded grants for dance and choreography from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Jerome Foundation, Asian American Renaissance, Missouri State University and by the College of Arts and Sciences at UNCC.

His choreographic works have been presented in such venues as Walker Art Center and Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, Joyce/Soho and St. Mark's Church in New York City , Kansas City at the Folly Theatre, and at numerous dance festivals, and universities nationally. E.E. has a B.A. in Music from The Colorado College, and an M.F.A. in Dance from The University of Iowa. He is an Assistant Professor of Dance at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte teaching modern technique, choreography, and improvisation.

Freedom Dances
(Greensboro, NC )

Freedom Dances directed by Nicole C. Laliberté is committed to the creation and performance of works that explore individual, social, and cultural identities. Works seek to reveal that among diversity and across boundaries, there exists a human solidarity.

Nicole C. Laliberté, Artistic Director of Freedom Dances, performed with Sidelong Dance Co., Boston Dance Co., and Honolulu Dance Theatre, among others. Nicole has danced, taught, and choreographed in Rhode Island, Boston, New York, Hawaii, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, and St. Petersburg , Russia . Her choreography has appeared at Old Dominion University's Regional Choreographers' Showcase, Greensboro Fringe Festival, the North Carolina Dance Alliance Annual Event, North Carolina Dance Project's Saturday Series, James Madison University, Cary Academy, UNCG, the North Carolina Dance Festival, and the American Dance Festival's Acts to Follow Series. She holds her MFA from UNCG and a BFA in Dance from Boston Conservatory. She has taught at UNCG, James Madison University, Meredith College, Darton College, and Greensboro Ballet.

Alice Howes
(Charlotte, NC)

Alice Howes is a lecturer in dance at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte . She holds an MA in dance from American University and an MFA in dance from Sam Houston State University . She has taught dance at American University, Lamar University , and Salisbury University . In addition, from 1995 to 2004 she served as artistic director and resident choreographer for Sister's Trousers Dance Company , a modern dance ensemble based in Washington, D.C., where the Washington Post described her as “one of those rare performers who make every move look instinctive,” and whose performance is “riveting, thrilling and deeply mysterious.” Howes' choreography has been invited to appear in selective showcases at venues such as Washington D.C. 's Dance Place and Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as Houston 's DiverseWorks and the Fort Worth Dance Festival.

The VON HOWARD PROJECT
(New York City, NY)

The VON HOWARD PROJECT is the brain child of Christian von Howard.  After serving as the Executive Director of 1*4*8 The Collective, a contemporary dance/theatre company of seven collaborating artists, and working side by side as Co-Artistic Director of the Power Company (SC) and JAADE Dance Theatre (TX), Christian has courageously taken the next step into directing his own dance company venture.   

VHP launched its first performance in December of 2003 with “Diffusing Borders: A Game of Inches,” a collaboration between Christian and company artist, Stephanie Milling in the Barefoot Brigade Dance Festival in Dallas, Texas .  The company continues to debut new and past works in venues in New York, New Jersey and in other points across the United States and abroad. 

Caroline Calouche & Co.
Dancers: Caroline Calouche and Charles Thompson
Photographer: Michael Church

EEMotion
Dancers: Andrew Carr and E.E. Balcos

Freedom Dances
Dancer and Choreographer: Nicole C. Laliberté
Photographer: Robert Coghill

Alice Howes

Von Howard Project
Choreographers and Dancers (top to bottom): Daniel Gwirtzman, Stephanie Milling, Christian von Howard
Photographer: Felice Gabrielle Romero