An evening of dances by Karin Stevens and two KSD company dancers, with commissioned music by Seattle composer Heather Bentley, and other regional and national music artists.
“This is a community of dancers for whom movement means something.” - Sandra Kurtz, SeattleDances
“Karin’s works are a magnificent blend of innovation, elegance, and flowing power. Please keep them coming.” - James Leonard, KSD board member
(Seattle) – A fixture of the Seattle dance scene, Karin Stevens Dance presents KSD & Kin with three works by Karin Stevens and two works by KSD company dancers, Sara Caplan and Anja Kellner-Rogers, as part of KSD’s commitment to support the development of dance artists in the Seattle dance ecosystem, October 20-21, 8pm at Nod Theater on Capitol Hill.
Parts of the Whole 2023 (World Premiere: Seattle International Dance Festival, as a James Ray Residency and Touring recipient, June 15, 2023), with music by John Luther Adams, explores the internal parts within us that make or divide the whole of ourselves and our relationships; the waves and undercurrents of our emotions upon and under the surface of our lives; and the spiritual concept of individuation and wholeness.
Created and presented in 2019/2020, A Small Space of Wildness, featuring original music by Seattle composer Heather Bentley, was choreographed from Steven’s improvisational practice with her backyard landscape in winter and summer. This work is an extension of Steven’s ongoing interest in the human body in relationship with the greater ecology. Stevens’ breadth of work moves within the stream of philosopher Dr. Bayo Akomolafe: “Decoloniality if it means anything, it must mean coming down to earth. It must mean returning to a body. Not to the bodies of the Euro-American Enlightenment; not that body. But to a body that is now dancing; always performatively entangled with the world around it.” (This work, as part of a body of place-based dances, developed into a writing and video-essay project. The first video in a series of four was premiered in the KSD November 2022 performances. You can view the first video-essay HERE.) The 2023 iteration of A Small Space of Wildness is performed with a recreation of the music by Bentley and new costuming by Sarah Mosher.
Remember River 2023, a solo choreographed and performed by Karin Stevens, will premiere in the October performances. The solo is an embodied empathic and spiritual response to a line from the poet Mary Oliver: “Who can imagine in what heaviness the rivers remember their original clarity.” The electro-acoustic music, by Jeff Grienke, from his album A Thousand Year Flood, is composed with one instrumentalist–cellist/violinist Heather Bentley.
Two new works by KSD company dancers will also premiere in the October performances. Sara Caplan (2022-present) and Anja Kellner-Rogers (2015-2017 & 2019-2023) are currently in the choreographic process throughout this summer. KSD is committed to the development of the Seattle dance ecosystem by providing opportunities for KSD company dancers and their dance-making practice. We hope to expand this vision, beginning in the fall of 2024, and the subsequent years, by incorporating live new music, with a collaborative process between composers, Stevens and KSD company dancers; with a hope to open our doors for more dancers to audition to dance in these new works for this yearly fall project, KSD & Kin.
Karin Stevens Dance believes that dance is a radical, vital art key to our future in this 21st century. KSD aims to re/connect us to our bodily selves, to each other and to the greater ecologies of our collective dance. Encapsulating the breadth of the moving human experience, our contemporary dance artworks strive for beauty through richly textured patterns that embody the complex, turbulent layers of our time, our cultural spaces, and our relationship to environments. Our work embraces the mystery, suffering, wonder, and bewilderment in our interdependent existence through re/imagination, transformation, and healing for our collective well-being.
Karin Stevens Dance and this project is partially funded by 4Culture Sustained Support, Glenn Kawasaki Foundation, and Seattle International Dance Festival’s James Ray Residency and Touring Support 2023.