Seattle International Dance Festival Descends on SLU June 14 - 23, 2013

We love seeing events like this grow and thrive in our neighborhood. Learn all about the festival and contact them to get involved. 

The 8^th Annual Seattle International Dance Festival (SIDF), Beyond the Threshold runs June 14-23, 2013 and like South Lake Union, the neighborhood it occupies, continues to grow by leaps and bounds. In addition to its largest roster to date of regional, national and international dance artists, and three new Spotlight on Seattle curators, Art on the Fly will seal off two blocks of Terry Avenue for a day-long urban art fiesta, including “surprise” and roving performances, a music stage, free dance classes, an artisan craft fair, a beer and margarita garden and food provided by restaurant sponsors like Tom Douglas’ Cuoco and Brave Horse Tavern. The Art on the Fly kickoff is topped off with a Dusk Dance Party hosted by KEXP DJ Will Myers and a “Dancing with the Seattleites” Dance Contest. Details Below.

This ten-day dance explosion fills this thriving neighborhood. And this popular festival strives to educate while providing free and paid entertainment for South Lake Union workers, residents and visitors of all ages. This year there are seven artistic programs including: Art on the Fly, The Inter|National Series, Spotlight on Seattle, The Threshold Institute, Dusk Dance Party, Dancing with the Seattleites and the Sanity Cafe.

Tickets to most performances are $20 in advance, $25 at the door (Students/Seniors are $15 in advance $20 at the door). An All Festival Pass can be had for $50, offering entrance to every event in the program. All details, including performance times, locations and ticketing information are available at www.SeattleIDF.org.

ART ON THE FLY - June 15; 12 - 6pm – KID-FRIENDLY. FREE DANCE CLASSES. FOOD. BEER GARDEN. DANCING WITH THE SEATTLEITES DANCE CONTEST FINALS.
Dozens of FREE kid-friendly dance events will take over the streets surrounding Amazon’s Van Vorst Plaza and turn the Seattle Streetcar stops into a giant “art ride.” through downtown and South Lake Union. Contemporary dance springs to life in everyday environments. Massive Monkees and former PNB dancers lead a variety of free dance classes. Indie rock bands No Clouds, Shenendoah Davis and Exohxo provide surprise “pop up” concerts (impromptu dancing is, of course, encouraged) and there are crafts, exhibits, food and a beer garden.

ART ON THE FLY / DUSK DANCE PARTY - June 15; 6 - 9pm
Hosted by KEXP’s favorite Latin DJ Will “Chilly” Myers. Chilly hosts “El Sonido” Mondays from 6-9pm but he will transport the Latin sounds to Van Vorst plaza for one very special outdoor dance party.

INTER|NATIONAL ARTISTS SERIES WEEKEND 1 - June 14
Tere Mathern Dance (Portland OR) performs Gather a dance about convergence, digging in, interdependence and the moment of interaction. A collaboration between Tere Mathern Dance and the music group, Battle Hymns & Gardens including saxophonists Reed Wallsmith and Joe Cunningham (both members of Blue Cranes).
Idan Cohen performs Wayfarer, set to Mahler’s composition.  This piece manifests the inner journey of the wanderer, searching for symbols and images of a home. As Israel's leading young independent choreographer, Cohen was born and raised on Kibbutz Mizra and danced with world-renowned Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company.

INTER|NATIONAL ARTISTS SERIES WEEKEND 1 - June 15-16
Yurek Hansen and Manimou Camara (Idaho and Guinea, Africa ) collaborate and merge traditional West African dance with hip-hop, ballet and martial arts.
Kokoro Dance (Vancouver Canada) perform A Simple Way, embodying the concepts of yugen (profound, mysterious sense of the beauty of the universe and the sad beauty of human suffering) and wabi (transient and stark beauty)-sabi (the beauty of natural patina and aging).
Khambatta Dance Company (Seattle WA) presents their final local performance of their highly regarded Truth and Betrayal.

INTER|NATIONAL ARTISTS SERIES WEEKEND 2 - June 21
Dance Construction Company (Washington, D.C.) performs Collision Course a.k.a. Pillow Talk directed by Maida Withers. It is about the fiction and reality of LUV for the digital age. Features an electronic visual installation by Alissandru Caldiero and electronic music by audacious performing poet/story teller Steve Hilmy.
Dancing People Company (Ashland, OR) perform a trio of dance works, Threshold, which happens and is about remaining within the confines of a small patch of grass, Ephemeral Lifetimes, a duet inspired by all the possible lifetimes one could have had, and Untitled, about the process of unwrapping the soul

INTER|NATIONAL ARTISTS SERIES WEEKEND 2 - June 22-23
Jennifer McLeish-Lewis (Nanaimo, Canada) perform Lucid. As Margaret Atwood once wrote, “You're sad because you're sad. It's psychic. It's the age. It's chemical. Go see a shrink or take a pill, or hug your sadness like an eyeless doll, you need to sleep.”
Wuza Wuza (Ghana, West Africa) collaborates with Seattle’s Version Excursion. Merging two influences from East and West, these two companies come together in a collaborative performance, Full Circle. Dancers bridge the gap between two very different cultures and explore the facets of human experience in a fusion of traditional African and contemporary dance.

SPOTLIGHT ON SEATTLE - June 18-20
Spotlight on Seattle brings together three dance world icons to curate and express their take on the Seattle dance scene. This years’ curators are Amy O’Neal (Velocity, Pat Graney, Dance This) Tere Mathern (Tere Mathern Dance) and Kiyon Gaines (PNB).
June 18 - (Amy O’Neal, Curator): Paige Barnes, Coyote; Corrie Befort, Aphorisms; Alice Gosti performs a vogueing piece exploring gender; Beth Graczyk. Celia; Jody Kuehner performs a new untitled work; Danny Long performs a new piece about the role of men as care takers/givers (my life as a black gay housewife), Devin McDermott, The Marble Made our Cheeks Look Pink; Amelia Reber, We Need Another Saxaphone; and Lou Henry Hoover, Future Purchase explores fatherhood and aging using stylized cabaret and burlesque genres.
June 19 - (Tere Mathern, Curator): a celebration of the unique relationship between Seattle and Portland.  Co-presented with Conduit Dance Center in Portland.  Allie Hankins, Like a Sun that Pours Forth Light but Never Warmth; Danielle Ross, Together We Fall; Tara Dyberg, Net//Works; Umami Performance, Constellation Half-Remembered; Kate Wallich, It Girl and Them.
June 20 - (Kiyon Gaines, Curator): Amy Johnson, Madmen; Badmarmadance performs and excerpt without context or provocation; Corolis Dance, Insofar; Ashani Dances, Like Sand Through My Fingers; Shannon Stewart, Come.Get.To.This.is.

SANITY CAFE - June 22, 10pm
A bar somewhere in South lake Union -
This late evening cabaret-style performance event serves up a common theme and gives a group of up-and-coming as well as established choreographers one week to choreograph a piece. The theme is selected by the opening night festival audience on June 14, 2013 and the final venue announced at that time. Immediately the selected choreographers will gather and decide how they are going to tackle the theme. They decide the structure of the evening and can collaborate or divide the tasks Artists include: Abigail Wallace and Alice Gosti.

THRESHOLD DANCE INSTITUTE - JUNE 17-21 9am- 5pm
Ninth Avenue Studio – Cornish College of the Arts – 427 9^th Ave. N.
Each year The Threshold Institute offers master classes with national and international artists/teachers. It is a week-long daytime intensive track culminating in a professionally produced performance at SIDF. Artists/teachers leading the repertory class and performance in 2013 include: Yawuza Alhassan (Ghana), Barbara Bourget (Canada), Yurek Hansen (Idaho Ballet), JenniferMcLeish-Lewis and Cyrus Khambatta (Seattle). Final performance is Sunday June 23 at 2pm.

The festival is produced by Khambatta Dance Comany and provided to the community to enrich the availability and diversity of contemporary dance.