FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Please include in all Calendar listings)

October 1, 2003

Contact: Marvel Gentry Davis, (513) 608-6961, marvel@zoomtown.com

Please visit our new Media Press Room at www.ballettechohiopaa.org/pressroom.htm for press releases and photos

 

ballet tech ohio presents

COMPLEXIONS High Voltage Choreography

at Cincinnati’s Aronoff Theater February 29, 2004

 

ballet tech ohio performing arts association’s presentation of Guest Company Complexions promises to fulfill its mission to educate, entertain and amaze by providing diverse and innovative performances that have a phenomenal community impact.  New York City based multicultural company, Complexions, will have its first Ohio appearance one night only at Cincinnati’s Aronoff Center for the Arts Procter & Gamble Hall on Sunday, February 29, 2004 at 8PM.  Many of the Complexions dancers will be celebrity guests at ballet tech ohio performing arts association’s Love the Arts Celebrity Dinner Dance and Silent Auction on Saturday evening, February 28th.

 

Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, Co-Artistic Directors, are “Hailed as two of the greatest virtuosos ever to hail from Ailey Land  New York Magazine.  They use dance and multimedia to express their creative passion and universal message of diversity and unity of all art forms and people.  Dwight Rhoden said, “Complexions to me is about bringing together dancers with diverse backgrounds and styles into a place where that diversity can be explored.  Racially and ethnically the company is very multicultural...  We do everything from pointe work, modern, to text and improvisation in our company.  I don’t think there are any other companies like us in America that consistently bring as many styles to the stage.” Complexions shatters stereotypes with its vision of diversity.” Pointe Magazine  Music may range from Prokofiev to Prince-  repertoire includes works by Resident Composer Antonio Carlos Scott, Stevie Wonder,  James Brown, Bach, Jobim, Bartok and Beethoven.   

 

Complexions is filled with a microcosm of today’s hottest dance talents” Attitudes Magazine.  Co-Artistic Director, Desmond Richardson, recipient of several awards for his talents as a dancer, including a Tony Award for his performance on Broadway in Fosse, “Instinctively…portrays poetry in movement.  Then, there’s his superb technique.  As a dance linguist, he speaks eloquently in all styles.” Choreographer Lars Lubovitch.  The company employs dancers skilled in a range of techniques.  “The dancers are highly trained in ballet.  It is the base.  When you have a good background in ballet, everything else shines.  We don’t believe in mediocrity” says Desmond Richardson.  [We feature] “Dancers who are expressive, theatrical, and can adapt to many styles while…expressing many extremes of vulnerability and strength.  Above all, someone can be focused on the work and is fearless.” Dwight Rhoden.  Complexions includes dancers who have been with the company most of its life such as Richardson, Sarita Allen, Sandra Brown, Thaddeus Davis, Francesca Harper, Jeffrey Polston, Miho Kanani Morinoue and Michael Thomas and newer additions, Lynn Barre, Mucuy Bolles, Prince Credell, Carlos Dos Santos, Jr., Heather H. Hamilton, Hanifa Jackson, Marc Mann, Sabra Perry, Gideon Poirier, Corbin Popp, Marden Ramos and Christina Sanchez.

 

Dwight Rhoden’s choreography, “like hot, molten lava, flowing with undeniable power” The New York Times has defined much of the persona of Complexions in over 60 ballets he created for the company, but recent additions of works by William Forsythe and Complexions dancers Uri Sands and Thaddeus Davis have added to the diversity of its repertoire.  Musical diversity is another earmark, performing ballets to the music of resident Antonio Carlos Scott, Bach, Jobim, Bartok, Donnie Hathaway,  LadySmith, and Stevie Wonder.  Dwight Rhoden says, “It’s hard for people to get their heads around.  That classification thing: Is it ballet?  Is it modern? Is it jazz? Is it Broadway-style musical theater? No, it’s all of that.”

 

“Dance Another Day.. And dance they did! Complexions... took the stage only for two performances, but left indelible impressions on its audiences. A truly unique company, the multicultural performers come in all shapes and sizes. What they have in common is their incredible ability to move. All classically trained, their feet almost move faster than the eye.”

February 2003 - The Arts Cure (of New York) - Liz Belton

 

"Beware: the energy and the spirit of this company are contagious"

Holland Dance Festival

 

"Pulsated with energy and pure sensual heat…"

The New York Times

 

"Dwight Rhoden has a distinct choreographic voice of the 90's."

Minneapolis Star Tribune

 

"Mr. Richardson is one of the great modern dancers of his time - bravura performer with extraordinary skills,"

The New York Times

 

COMPLEXIONS tickets are on sale now at the Aronoff Box Office, Music Hall Box Office, all Ticketmaster locations and www.ticketmaster.com $20-$30-$45.  Group rates, Senior and ETA/START discounts available. To charge by phone call (513) 241-SHOW.  For more information about the show or Love the Arts Celebrity Dinner Dance, call ballet tech ohio performing arts association at (513) 683-6860,

e-mail btopaa@ballettechohiopaa.org, or visit our website www.ballettechohiopaa.org 

 

 

FOUNDED IN 1997 by Claudia Rudolf Barrett, the non-profit ballet tech ohio performing arts association presents a Season Series of major dance programs and about a dozen community performances each year to provide Greater Cincinnati with a new venue for high quality dance performances featuring pre-professional and professional dancers and a wide variety of artists, dance styles and music.  The ballet tech ohio performing arts association mission is to educate, entertain and amaze by providing diverse and innovative performances that have a phenomenal community impact.  We have touched over 14,000 audience members in the last two years with our Season Series and community performances to further educate the public.  Our Dance 2 Community Kids community outreach program engaged individuals and sponsor companies to partner with us to introduce over 400 youth from underserved communities to ballet and the Aronoff Center in support of our initiative to expand the audience for the arts and downtown Cincinnati venues. ballet tech ohio performing arts association sponsors the  ballet tech ohio Summer Intensive Seminar which offers professional dance training by internationally acclaimed dance teachers from all over the world and Master Classes by Gala of International Ballet Stars performers as guest teachers.  For more information about  ballet tech ohio performing arts association, visit www.ballettechohiopaa.org