ATLANTA—The Emory Dance Program presents “Duets, Duets, Duets!”, an evening of six works from choreographer Gregory Catellier and Catellier Dance Projects! Performances are February 1 and 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Dance Studio of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.
The show revisits five works from the company’s past alongside a new piece that follows Catellier’s reputation for clever and quirky dance-making. Each of the works in this concert focuses on the duet form, exploring the emotional and physical connections between pairs of performers.
“Looking back, I felt a deep connection to the duets I have choreographed,” explains Catellier. “There’s something about the partnership of two people dancing on stage that is inexplicable. The many layers of relationship within a duet means there’s always something to explore and to go deeper with.”
The new piece on the program, “3 x 2 v1,” is a group of duets that share the same time and space. “While my process is always collaborative, this piece represents a new method of making work for me,” says Catellier. Using fragments of popculture that surface and resurface in the lives and minds of the performers, Catellier and his dancers create a bizarre and often funny collage of personal relationships, inside jokes, and misheard song lyrics.
For Catellier, restaging previous works has presented the opportunity to explore and challenge the assumptions of gender-based relationships by changing the genders of the cast, but not the choreography. A duet created for two women is now performed by men. A duet originally performed by a man and a woman becomes two same sex couples.
The show features Atlanta dancers Alex Abarca, Jessica Bertram, Corian Ellisor, Helen Hale, Sally O’Grady, Kristin O’Neal, Amelia Reiser, Nicholas Surbey, and Catellier himself, alongside guest artists Erin Cardinal and Brian Fidalgo II.
Favorites of the Tampa Bay dance scene, Cardinal and Fidalgo have been creating work for twelve years under the name “base/flight.” Their physically demanding and emotionally intimate work has been presented in Houston, New York, and Seattle.
Catellier Dance Projects! performs “Duets, Duets, Duets!” Friday, February 1 and Saturday, February 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Dance Studio of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. For tickets, visit arts.emory.edu, or call the Arts at Emory Box Office at 404.727.5050. For more information on this and other upcoming Emory Dance Program events, visit dance.emory.edu