Glade

Betsy Loikow and Shannon Dooling-Cain created Spontaneous Emergence collaboratively with dancers and musicians, inspired by "Valencia" by Caroline Shaw. It was created during NACHMO/DC 2016. It can be performed with or without musicians onstage, and can vary from 6 to 10 minutes. (Photo by Rob Cannon.)

Collectively choreographed, Mine/Field has always belonged to Glade's audience and community. It started with appeal to the community, continued with data and secrets on paper at Glade's 2015 Gala, and flourished when guest dancers joined and Capital Fringe Festival 2015 approached. Mine/Field, a modern dance about data privacy, national security, and vulnerability, features "exquisite geometry" (DC Metro Theater Arts) and is a "breath of fresh air on an often stale topic" (DC Theatre Scene). 

See photos by Rob Cannon. Listen to the music of Mine/Field on Spotify. Read more on Washington City Paper about how we collected and analyzed data in this piece.  See our digital program extras.

In this game called life, who sets the rules? What team are you on? Do you belong there? Created for 2016's Capital Fringe Festival (and started via NACHMO/DC 2016), Am I There Yet?  satirically looks at contemporary rites of passage in a secular, diverse society.

Job. Partner. House. Baby. Are you there yet? Photo by CreeseWorks.

In 2014, choreographer Lauren Borchard started with the process - manipulating dance movement as if the dancer were learning to vocalize that phrase for the first time. What arose was a dance about learning how to communicate - sometimes your conversations go well, and sometimes they utterly fail. Designed for between two and six dancers, Speak is versatile and intimate.

Choreographer Betsy Loikow collaborated with playwright (and long-time friend) Emily Schwend when she found herself being more inspired by text than by music to create movement. It explores the connection to place - or more specifically, home - through three dancers/characters.

Choreographer Lauren Borchard found this dance "begging to be made," about the end of pregnancy, labor, and new parenthood. It's not a piece just for other moms, but for anyone's who has dealt with change, waited in trepidation, or found joy in an intimate relationship or community. It premiered at Jack Guidone Theater in March 2014.

Choreographed by Jessica Hoversen, this duet - premiered at Jack Guidone Theater in March 2014 - explores the strength within yourself.

Connections, premiered at Dance Place in August 2013, explores how we connect and disconnect to space, to others, and to ourselves. To develop this evening-length piece, Glade sourced movement both in and outside of the traditional rehearsal process, finding inspiration from and collaboration with loved ones, audience members, and strangers alike throughout the creative journey. It features audio from friends and audience members describing their own ways of connecting, plus a focus on improvisation guarantees that every performance will be unique.

Caged Songbird, a piece led by Sylvana Christopher and inspired by our friend Miguel Amaguana, examines some of the challenges facing undocumented immigrants and the efforts of second- and third-generation immigrants to find their way and let their voice be heard. It was developed for, and inspired by Handmade on Hamilton and the people of Hyattsville, Md.

This improvised score was performed in Rosslyn, Va., as a lead-up to the SUPERNOVA Performance Arts Festival. The movements and partnerships were inspired by movement from Caged Songbird. Simply Arlie photographed in collaboration with our movement that day.

Atlas Romp is a celebration of a day in the life on H Street NE, from the long-established residents and business owners, to the artists who bring a new energy that converges at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. Glade asks, "What music moves a people?" in this piece specifically developed for INTERSECTIONS. See photos by Maggie Picard.

Created by Glade choreographer Sylvana Christopher with guest artist Vaunita Goodman and Glade dancer Emma Dozier, The Fela Project is a dance inspired by the music and life of a very outspoken Nigerian Afro-beat originator: the one and only Fela Anikulapo Ransome Kuti.

Caitlin Russi's The Island explores being thrown into the unfamiliar. Drawing from the experiences of the dancers' quarter life crises, the piece grapples with the Smoke Monster of uncertainty while finding strength in the mysteries of The Island of new experience.

Working exclusively with the haunting and stimulating sounds of electronic group Ratatat, choreographer Alina Hall Sabadish developed Khora to showcase the power of breath and the female body. Lauren Borchard, Sylvana Christopher, Emma Dozier, Betsy Loikow and Caitlin Russi danced an updated and lengthened version of the piece on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011, as part of Joy of Motion's Dance Project.  See Dance Project photos on Facebook.

The Wall is an emotional work that explores the effect of enforced policies of separation on people's lives, focusing on the experience of those living with the separation wall in the West Bank. When a wall goes up, who is walled in, and who is walled out? Led by Betsy Loikow, Glade dancers have explored this topic over the past year through music, poetry, film and narrative accounts of life in the shadow of the wall and its checkpoints. Glade has worked with local Palestinian dabkeh dancer and choreographer Rania Kiblawi to find movement for the piece and taken special inspiration from the writings of Read a review of a past performance of The Wall. See photos of Glade improvising at From Edgewood to the End of the World, a wall in our community.

Developed for the 2011 Dance is the Answer festival, Entwine  was developed specifically for the Labyrinth at Georgetown Waterfront Park, an open public space that incorporates this ancient design, Entwine asks, What happens if you cross the line? In a collaboration between dancers, visual artists and musicians. Glade dancers and visual artist partners explored labyrinths and the reasons we are drawn to them to create a multidisciplinary performance at the Georgetwon Waterfront labyrinth. Visual artists of all disciplines attended and participated in the performance to create new art inspired by dance. See more pictures from Entwine.

Becoming a Glade staple - performed at least once a year - Glade originally created this work for the 2010 Eureka Dance Festival. Combining media, voice and dance, this piece examines the ways that music and dance are a part of the breath and life of our nation's Capitol. These art forms can connect and divide us, but they are an ever-present, and often-forgotten, part of life in every corner of this city. What song, rhythm, or dance epitomizes D.C. for you?

Performed at the FDR Memorial, this work explored Arts and the Economy, commemorating the 75th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration.