Threads Dance Project to perform with SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Michala Cornell Company Manager
Threads Dance Project / 414-534-2305 / mgr@threadsdance.org
Threads Dance Project performs with
Grammy Award Nominated SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK!
Production promises a visceral experience for the mind, body, and soul
Minneapolis, MN: Threads is the first Twin Cities dance company to collaborate with SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK live on stage.
Four years in the making, Artistic Director Karen L. Charles realizes a dream with SWEET HONEY as she takes audience members on a journey of memories, loss, love, and spirituality with Body & Soul. The show also includes a reprise of Humanity & Elysian Fields Avenue a dance about the physical and emotional tragedies of Hurricane Katrina.
To collaborate with this nationally acclaimed music group is sure to be an inspirational, truly memorable performance.
Threads Dance Project seeks to examine, expose and celebrate the threads that connect us in the hope of improving humanity through its work. This mission runs parallel to SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCKs desire to invite people to think about who we are and how we treat each other, says Charles. I have always been drawn to SWEET HONEYs music because they say in music what I try to say with movement.
Performances dates and time: March 21 and 22 at 7:30p.m
Cowles Center for Dance & The Performing Arts
For ticket information, please visit www.thecowlescenter.org or call 612-206-3600
About Threads Dance Project & Karen L. Charles: The Mission of Threads Dance Project is to examine, expose and celebrate the threads that connect us. Threads Dance Project celebrates the human spirit through dance. Threads Dance Project has enjoyed three successful seasons of contemporary dance.
THREADS was founded by Karen L. Charles after her beloved father passed away, leaving her just enough money to realize her 10-year dream of becoming a choreographer and director of her own company. A dedicated performer, teacher, and mentor, Karen Long Charles received her B.F.A. in Ballet and B.S. in Computer Science from Texas Christian University. Charles has performed with dance companies around the country including Room to Move Dance Company (Atlanta, GA), Susan Warden Dance Company (Kansas City, MO), and the Pittsburgh Choreography Continuum. Charles studied as a fellowship recipient at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. She served as founder and principal instructor of Discovering Dance (Atlanta), and was an instructor in the Atlanta Public School System for ten years.
Charles currently lives in Golden Valley, MN. As an arts educator, she served as Director at Perpich Arts High School and she was the founding Principal/Executive Director at Main Street School of Performing Arts for seven years.
For more information about Threads Dance Project, visit threadsdance.org
or find us on Facebook at facebook.com/threadsdanceproject.
About SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK:
The Grammy-nominated and revered a cappella ensemble are celebrating four incredible decades of creating an adventurous and diverse mix of blues, African, jazz, gospel and R&B music, with excursions into symphonic and dance theater. This year they are celebrating their sterling legacy as inspiring artists, social and political activists and performers under the banner of SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK'S 40TH ANNIVERSARY...FORTY & FIERCE.
Last year SWEET HONEY released their 23rd CD, SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK...A TRIBUTE, LIVE! JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER, which paid homage to the music of iconic jazz diva's Abbey Lincoln, Miriam Makeba, Odetta, and Nina Simone, and also featured a contemporary jazz trio. They also performed at the unveiling of the Martin Luther King Memorial statue and the National Memorial Service for Nelson Mandela at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. Their last foray into dance/theater was as collaborators and performers in GO IN GRACE, a theatrical piece directed and choreographed Hope Boykin that was featured in the 50th Anniversary of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company national tour (2009-10). SWEET HONEY wrote and produced all the original music for the piece and performed with an ensemble of dancers. Formed as a quartet in 1973 at workshop at the D.C. Black Repertory Theater Company in Washington by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, (who retired in 2004) the current ensemble comprises Louise Robinson, Carol Maillard, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Aisha Kahlil, and Shirley Saxton (ASL interpreter).
###
