Summer Steps

Aug. 5, 2016

The TC Dance Project Performs

Where do ballet dancers go on vacation? For many, their summer destination has become Traverse City, where the Traverse City Dance Project, under the artistic direction of Jennifer McQuiston Lott and Brent Whitney, is changing the way local people think about ballet, as well as the places they can go to see it.

Traverse City Dance Project is a contemporary ballet company that still respects and includes the traditional forms of the dance — kind of like classical ballet plus. “Our dancers are professional ballet dancers from all over the country, from working companies,” Lott explained. “Everyone has layoffs in the summer, but they still want to keep dancing, so this project is almost like a retreat for them.” This summer’s schedule will include three performances, all at Dennos Museum Center’s Milliken Auditorium, starting with an abbreviated program directed at a youthful audience.

“The first show is family friendly and really is for kids,” Lott said. “The dance pieces are shorter, about five minutes each, to accommodate little attention spans. And the kids’ show will be light, educational and fun.” A Q&A session after the performance will invite the kids to ask the dancers questions and find out more about what they do. “Kids always want to touch the pointe shoes,” Lott laughed. “So we’ll have those available for them to check out, as well.”

As much a treat for the ears as it is for the eyes, the company’s performances place a strong emphasis on the music that accompanies the dancers, often having the musicians play live as part of the performance.

This year, Lott’s husband, Ryan Lott, also known as indie music artist Son Lux, collaborated with New York chamber ensemble yMusic to accompany Untitled, one of his wife’s dances. Composer and dance accompanist Dorian Wallace and violinist Hajnal Pivnik, directors of the chamber music ensemble Tenth Intervention, will appear to perform the work I’m Not Leaving Until the Amber Turns to Gray.

The full program will also include a humorous duet for two male dancers, O Sole Mio by Mauro de Candia, the director of the State Theater Company of Osnabruck in Germany; and Ligeti Essays, a work of iconic choreographer and “punk ballerina” Karole Armitage. Lott is especially enthused about the latter. “It’s exciting to us to have Karole contributing because she’s a woman, and she’s choreographed all around the world. We’re always talking about how there’s such a dearth of women in the dance world, so this is our opportunity to help showcase more women choreographers.”

The Traverse City Dance Project also takes advantage of its unique approach and small-town location to delve further into the realm of dance experimentation, which is why each performance is so different from anything the company has staged before. “One of the coolest things about what we do, and what we’ve always done, is that we really like to create brand new works,” Lott said. “And we like to encourage people to create new music just for dance. So it’s a very collaborative show, and I think this summer’s presentation is also an especially great program.”

The Traverse City Dance Project’s summer 2016 performances will take place at 12pm (family show), 2:30pm, and 7:30pm on Saturday, August 13 at Milliken Auditorium in Traverse City, with an additional performance on August 14 in Northport. For tickets and more information, visit tcdanceproject.org