While I host a television show on art and culture on our local PBS affiliates, I still create art and choreograph as well as teach when the schedule permits. So when I had the opportunity to present my work as part of the Synergy Dance Series, I applied.
The Synergy Dance Series is the brainchild of two outstanding choreographers and dance educators in Cincinnati, Rowan Salem and Teresa VanDenend Sorge. The series allows choreographers to present eight-minute completed works or even works in progress and allows the audience to give feedback via questionnaires after each selected work. Each artist works with Teresa, Rowan, and this collective of dancers to create a buffet of eclectic and dynamic works.
The Synergy Series of concerts was presented at Artsville, a community arts center in the Madisonville neighborhood of Cincinnati. This presentation was as close as our region would get to having a “downtown“ dance scene with experimental, quirky, humorous, dark, and compelling choreographic works. Our area is known for the strength of its ballet and modern companies, like Cincinnati Ballet, Dayton Ballet, and the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. However, outlets for individual expression and risk-taking are few and far between, especially in dance. Teresa and Rowan have done something miraculous; they have created a new pathway for emerging voices in dance.
What also hit home was the overwhelming number of female choreographers who presented their works on the series. From Leslie Dworkin to Stevie Lamblin, each choreographer created works that alternately fascinated and transported us. They created works that spoke loudly about what it means to be a woman and citizen in America in the present day. There are many conversations about the absence of female choreographers, but there is another considerable absence: the lack of opportunities to experiment artistically in the public realm.
We have an abundance of professional venues to produce works in a polished professional sense, but when the work is raw and edgy, where do the practitioners go? The art world, from the visual to the performative, needs pioneering individuals and organizations willing to take the chances and those risks. Los Angeles and New York are costly and restrictive art world portals. Why can’t Southwest Ohio become the experimental arts capital of the Midwest? How about barns, warehouses, and empty commercial storefronts?
I am beyond grateful to Artsville for their unconditional support of the pioneering efforts of Teresa and Rowan. I cannot thank these two women for creating their pathway and a program that supports and nourishes new voices in choreography, especially women. We need more maverick and bold moves like this. The arts need the work of artists of every kind. We need the majesty of established mainstream artists and the fringe artists’ quirky, weird, and boundary-pushing works.
You must be there the next time you see or hear about the Synergy Series being presented.
Rodney Veal is the host of thinkTV/CET Connect and President of the board of OhioDance.
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