Coming Home: ADF Alumni Return

Each summer at the American Dance Festival, student choreographers and dancers sharpen their skills in its rigorous Six-Week School and frequently launch professional careers. Here, a blue-ribbon panel of choreographers has chosen five emerging talents, all ADF alumni, for a showcase of their divergent work. Burr Johnson’s grace, precision, and long physical lines have made local choreographer Helen Simoneau’s work look good for years. Raja Feather Kelly continues his series of Andy Warhol dance interpretations. Alex Springer and Xan Burley’s study in proximity, You Being Me Being You and the Eye, stems from mimicking guest movers during their field studies. Julio Medina’s I Gotta fuses spoken word, hip-hop, and modern dance to interrogate concepts of masculinity, sexuality, and vulnerability. The last also figures into Chafin Seymour’s Gaze, a sometimes-amusing, sometimes-poignant exploration of the interrelationships among three men in the big city. Byron Woods