Tag: Epic Center
Saturday at the Epic Center: Beware the dance echo chamber — come to RAD Fest
KALAMAZOO, MI — In 2017, Fox News dropped the slogan “Fair and Balanced.” They claimed it was because the motto had been written by its dismissed chairman Roger Ailes, swapping the phrase for “Most Watched, Most Trusted.” Whatever you think about Fox News, the change certainly provides a more accurate picture of the network’s essence. I thought about this watching…
RAD Fest’s first night of short works puts American gender and race politics front and center
KALAMAZOO, MI — Two rows of chairs form a semi-circle around a projection screen hung at the front of the Judy Joliffe Theater. A third ring of audience members stands behind these chairs. On the screen, a video flashes footage of current events – the Women’s March and various other protests, and the Access Hollywood Billy Bush tape, for example….
Long works program a rare chance to see festival dances breathe
KALAMAZOO, MI — It is often the case that the dance festival setting provides a broad, but shallow view of an artist’s work. It’s an understandably impossible conundrum; festival organizers throughout the country want to bring as much variety as they can to audiences, and offer opportunities to as many artists as possible. In coming to the Midwest Regional Alternative…
Second half of RAD Fest imbued with questions of power, perspective, permission
Author’s note: To read additional coverage of the 2018 Midwest RAD Fest, click here. KALAMAZOO, MI — Each of RAD Fest’s four juried live performances asked audience members to travel from the Epic Center’s Wellspring Theater to the Judy Jolliffe Theater across the hall, a flexible blackbox with gleaming, gorgeous wood floors. We’re told to stand or sit wherever we like,…
First RAD Fest late night is ‘like a prayer’
Author’s note: To read additional coverage of the 2018 Midwest RAD Fest, click here. KALAMAZOO, MI — Gina Kohler walks onstage, naked, and sits on top of a mirror, that’s on top of a muslin drop cloth, that’s on top of a larger plastic drop cloth. She pours a red liquid slowly down her back, across her forehead and across her…
RAD Fest kick-off is wide-ranging, thought-provoking
KALAMAZOO, MI — Originally from New York, Cori Terry danced with Erick Hawkins in the ’70s and was invited to Western Michigan University (WMU) in Kalamazoo, MI as an artist-in-residence in 1980. She’s been here ever since, founding Wellspring in 1981 as the only professional contemporary dance company in the region. In 2000, Wellspring moved into beautiful new facilities at the Epic…
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