Coming to the Redfern: Rebecca Stenn, Winter/Spring Season

From Jackie Hooper, Redfern:

Rebecca Stenn, the Redfern Arts Center’s 2013-14 choreographer-in-residence, will perform a solo dance concert accompanied by composer Jay Weissman, bass, on Monday, January 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the Redfern’s Alumni Recital Hall on the Keene State College campus. The performance is part of a new solo series entitled “The Power of One.” Tickets are $20 for the general public, $15 for seniors and children, and $5 for Keene State students. Call the Box Office at 603-358-2168 or order online at www.keene.edu/racbp.

Stenn will stay after the performance for a discussion of her new work with audience members. Weissman will present a workshop on composing music for dance at a time and place to be announced.

Stenn will perform the New England premiere of Time I Know, a new evening-length solo that explores the idea of looking at time and the often mysterious and puzzling ways time moves.

“We have time. We spend time. We kill time. We’ve been told since we were children, that time is money. But it’s not,” said Stenn. “Time is a blurry continuum that speeds and slows according to our attention to it.”

The dance, which tells a personal, intimate story of moving backwards in time to see where you are going, is a collaboration with lighting designer Kathy Kaufmann and composer/bassist Jay Weissman.

Stenn’s residency and performance is a collaboration with the KSC Theatre and Dance Department.

For more on Stenn, Weissman, and their collaboration, see the full story at the keene.edu news site.

Also from Jackie:

Family fun is the catchword for the winter/spring entertainment offerings at the Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College that include the hilarious circus antics of Montreal-based Cirque Alfonse, toe-tapping folk music by Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, thrilling new modern dance works by Rebecca Stenn and Doug Elkins Dance, and the thought-provoking puppetry of Sandglass Theater. In addition to this fabulous line-up, the Redfern engages audiences with numerous free activities and connections with our visiting artists that enhance the experience of live performance, ranging from workshops with the artists, post-show discussions, lobby receptions, and art exhibits.

“During the winter season we know that many parents and caregivers are looking for family-friendly activities,” said Redfern Director Shannon Mayers. “So in February we are offering two great family shows on Saturdays that are perfect for all ages. I encourage everyone in the community to visit campus to experience all of our performances and especially our free Creative Connections activities.”

The Redfern’s winter/spring season comprises five performances.

• Rebecca Stenn (Monday, January 27, 7:30 p.m. Alumni Recital Hall) (see above)
• Cirque Alfonse (Saturday, February 1, 2 p.m., Main Theatre)
  This hilarious circus troupe from Quebec presents Timber!, a lively folk-musical circus featuring log-walking, spoon-clacking, hatchet-juggling, clog-dancing and even hijinks on an outhouse! Celebrating their first United States tour, Timber! is a smorgasbord of family fun based on the tradition of logging camps with axes swinging through the air and logs becoming props as the performers do daring knife tricks and acrobatic feats to the toe-tapping sounds of traditional Quebecois music. Tickets range from $40 to $25 depending upon seat location.
• Doug Elkins Dance (Tuesday, February 4, 7:30 p.m., Main Theatre)
  The irreverent choreographer Doug Elkins returns to the Redfern Arts Center with the world premiere of Hapless Bizarre, a comic movement piece that Elkins describes as “Merce Cunningham meets Buster Keaton.” It will be a light-spirited work to juxtapose his more shadowy Mo(or)town Redux, a homage to Jose Limon’s Moor’s Pavane, which is based on Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, with the upbeat music of Motown and the neo-Motown sound. Tickets range from $25 to $15 depending on seating.
• Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem (Saturday, February 22, 11 a.m., Alumni Recital Hall)
  Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem mix traditional, original, and contemporary sounds on fiddle, guitar, bass, and recycled percussion. Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem’s family show is barefoot, front-porch, tap-your-feet folk music for families, spanning 200 years of American music. With influences from Doc Watson to Django Reinhardt, from Fiddlin’ John Carson to the funky Meters, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem delight families with their generous spirit, quirky humor, and musical prowess. All tickets are $5 to this family show.
• Sandglass Theater (Tuesday, March 4, 7:30 p.m., Main Theatre)
  The beloved Putney, Vermont, puppet theater returns to the Redfern with D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks. This touching new piece explores the rich creative potential of people living with dementia. Their collective stories, told through a cast of puppets and their caretakers, creates a piece that is poetic, humorous, and quite mysterious. From these stories, Sandglass Theater forms scenes of the inner life of the characters, and creates a piece that reflects both the stigma and the acceptance, the despair and the joy, that is equally present and possible, in both the person with dementia and in their caregivers and family members. These stories reveal the somber side of the disease as well as its humor and playfulness. Tickets range from $25 to $13 depending on seating.