Dance need not be associated with a story, according to Dayton Contemporary Dance Company manager G.D. Harris, but can simply evoke emotion.
That’s what the Ohio-based dance company hopes to do in its Patten Performances event on Tuesday at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Fine Arts Center.
People should “come and experience movement that will provoke a feeling of how you perceive dance,” said Harris, who also is the company’s rehearsal coach and a dancer in the performance. “It can give you emotion. You don’t have to come away with a story.”
IF YOU GO* What: Dayton Contemporary Dance Company.* When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.* Where: UTC Fine Arts Center, corner of Vine and Palmetto streets.* Admission: $22 adults, $19 seniors, $15 students.* Phone: 425-4269.* Website: www.tickettracks.com.
The dancers will perform three pieces, all exclusive to the 42-year-old company, which, according to its website, has produced and archived the country’s largest collection of dance works by black artists.
The first, according to Harris, is “J. Lawrence Paint (Harriet Tubman Remix),” a dance choreographed by Donald Byrd that offers a mixture of styles of contemporary movement and ballet. Byrd based the work on artist Jacob Lawrence’s series of migration paintings, he said.
The second, he said, is “The Pride,” choreographed by former company member Daniel Marshall. The piece is influenced by big cats and how they move, how they walk and how majestic, sensual and graceful they are, he said.
The third, Harris said, is “Sets and Chasers,” choreographed by Kevin Ward using music by composer, pianist and band leader Duke Ellington. Ward was influenced, he said, by the sight of the swing, jive and “partnerness” of the way in which his parents and other couples danced. The piece takes its name from the way Ellington played music, with specific music sets and the chasers, or little interludes, between sets, Harris said.
Chattanooga is the first stop on the company’s nine-city fall tour.