Dancing in the barns and fields
Photo by Susan Kettering. Courtesy of the Glen Arbor Arts Center.
From staff reports
The TC Dance Project returns once again to Leelanau County’s historic barns and pastoral landscape. In collaboration with the Glen Arbor Arts Center, the dance performance will be held on Saturday, July 30, from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Nash Road Red Barn near Maple City—on property owned by an Arts Center board member.
This event represents the third stop in the TC Dance Project’s Community Tour, following public performances in Kalkaska and Frankfort earlier this month. The Dance Project turns 10 years old in 2022.
“The best part of the Nash Road barn performance is the backdrop of fields and nature behind our stage,” said Brent Whitney, the organization’s founder, executive director and artistic director, together with Jennifer Lotts. “Our idea is to perform in locations that don’t have easy access to live theater, music and dance.”
Tickets cost $35 and are available for purchase by visiting www.GlenArborArt.org. Attendees are encouraged to show up early and bring a picnic. Before the dance, Jordan Hamilton and Andy Catlain have collaborated with a choreographer to bring back an original score, “Something I Had in Mind,” which the Dance Project first performed 10 years ago.
Last year the TC Dance Project performed at the Thoreson farm in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s Port Oneida Rural Historic District, accompanied by Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” played by the Traverse Symphony Orchestra. The Dance Project received a grant from Rotary Charities to fund a portable outdoor stage.
“Instead of getting people to sit inside a theater at the height of summer, which is always difficult, we brought it outdoors and used nature as a backdrop,” said Whitney. “It’s a phenomenal setting to perform, and less intimidating for those who don’t know live theater.”
Whitney and Arts Center executive director Sarah Kime met in 2019 and began talking about a collaboration for 2020. But the pandemic delayed those plans.
“COVID was kind of good for us in that it moved us to an outdoor space,” admitted Whitney.
For the Glen Arbor Arts Center, the dance performances have effectively replaced the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb Concert, which has been canceled indefinitely during COVID-19. Kime hopes the popular annual event will return in 2023, which is the Art’s Center’s 40th anniversary year.
“This is a wonderful way for people to have a picnic-style experience and be exposed to world-renowned dancers and phenomenal musicians,” said Kime. “We’re excited to partner with and support dancers in Leelanau County, and do it in a special location.”
“It’s magical to see these athletic bodies perform in this landscape. We’ll try to capture the same feeling as we did last year at Thoreson farm.”
