Contemporary dance troupe offers eclectic mix in 'Breaking Ground'
By JAMES D. WATTS JR., 5/12/2006
The Monica Huggins Dance Theatre, Courtesy Photo
The Monica Huggins Dance Theatre was one of the few local performers at this year's New Genre Festival in March.
But the group's appearances as part of the festival's Performance Open shows quickly become one of the most talked-about events of New Genre.
The dance company -- Tulsa's only troupe devoted to original contemporary, inter-disciplinary dance -- will give an encore of the works it performed at New Genre as part of "Breaking Ground," to be presented at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday in the Liddy Doenges Theatre of the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Second Street and Cincinnati Avenue.
Tickets for the performance are $10 and available through the PAC Ticket office, 596-7111, and www.MyTicketOffice.com.
The two pieces being repeated are "Eve's Eden," a meditation on Eve's decision in the Garden of Eden by artistic director Katherine Feiock, and "Heartbeats" by Jessica Tankersley, about the unexpected twists and turns that happen within relationships.
Two other works by Feiock are on the program. "Wonder," set to songs by Stevie Wonder, is a celebration of three aspects of love, while "Soul-D Time" incorporates American Sign Language into the choreography.
The evening also will feature premiere performances of two dance pieces created by choreographers from outside the company.
Becky Eagleton, who for many years was Tulsa's prime mover for contemporary dance as head of the LocalMotion Foundation, will debut "Wave, Landforms, Flight," a work about the connection between humans and the environments of sea, land and sky.
"Boy Meets Girl," a piece originally created for the Wichita State University's dance department by Lucy Frees, will have its Tulsa premiere as part of "Breaking Ground." The piece turns the "mating rituals" of a night at the local bar into soulful physical jazz.
"Breaking Ground" is made possible in part through a grant from the Tulsa Performing Arts Center Trust.