The American Dance Festival will continue its internationally recognized stewardship of modern dance with its 87th (not a typo) season, which runs June 19–July 25, 2020. The lineup was announced today.
Among nearly 50 performances by more than 20 companies and choreographers, including nine world premieres and eight ADF debuts, some things come as no surprise: Paul Taylor! Pilobolus! The Scripps Award for lifetime achievement goes to … Shen Wei!
But we’re getting some wilder cards, too, such as the ADF debuts of Milka Djordevich and Janis Brenner. Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group also makes its ADF debut with POWER, based on the early evolution of African-American worship.
One of ADF’s new commissions is Radioactive Practice, an evening-length work by 2018 Footprints choreographer Abby Zbikowski. And we’re excited about Made in NC, which features four commissions from five North Carolina-based choreographers: Chris Yon and Taryn Griggs, Justin Tornow (whose interview with Meredith Monk is in our pages this week), Ramya Sundaresam Kapadia, and Jose Valesquez.
We’re also glad to see returning favorites like Monica Bill Barnes, whose documentary dance with Ira Glass was well-loved in 2015; A.I.M by Kyle Abraham and Rennie Harris Puremovement; and dance-theater’s comedic memoirist, Sara Juli. She was a riot in Tense Vagina in 2016; her new ADF commission, Burnt-Out Wife, deals in marital taboos.
The 2020 festival takes place at venues around Duke—Reynolds Industries Theater, Page Auditorium, and the von der Heyden Studio Theater—as well as at DPAC, which hosts Vertigo Dance Company from Israel in July.
Individual tickets and subscriptions go on sale Tuesday, April 28, at the ADF website; check out the full schedule and auxiliary events here.
bhowe@indyweek.com
