COLUMBIA REPERTORY DANCE COMPANY PRESENTS “IN OUR TIME” FOR TWO EVENINGS AT CMFA ARTSPACE

Professional dance company from Columbia, SC presents fourth annual concert on August 18th and 19th, 2023

The Columbia Repertory Dance Company will present a full evening of dance for two nights at the CMFA Artspace, 914 Pulaski Street, August 18th and 19th, 2023 at 8 pm.

IN OUR TIME explores the stages of life and addresses the human capacity for vulnerability, strength, and growth.

With IN OUR TIME, Columbia Repertory Dance Company presents their fourth annual summer concert and second as a nonprofit organization. Featuring South Carolina choreographers Angela Gallo, Erin Bailey, Dale Lam, Kiyomi Mercadante Ramirez, Jennifer Deckert and Andre Megerdichian, and Stephanie Wilkins, the organization will mount an evening of versatile and exhilarating entertainment that demonstrates the depth and range of talent in dance in Columbia, and follows their mission statement in helping to both employ SC dance artists and ultimately provide dance opportunities that will allow exceptionally skilled professional dancers the opportunity to call Columbia, SC their year-round home.

The company will present works that portray the unique perspective of each choreographer. By collaborating with local artists and organizations and blending the highly physical with the highly emotional, Columbia Repertory Dance Company aims to create an experience that draws people in and encourages them to make dance a regular part of their arts consumption.

Pictured front - Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, co-founder & managing director, formerly of Spectrum Dance Theatre (Seattle) and principal dancer with Columbia City Ballet

Left to right - Megan Saylors - who has danced with Joel Hall and Dancers and Innervation Dance Cooperative in Chicago

Olivia Timmerman - apprentice - currently pursuing a BFA in Choreography at Coker College

Lindsay Fallow - freelance artist

photos from “Two Vulnerable People” photo credit Meghann Padgett

In 2018, co-founders Bonnie Boiter-Jolley and Stephanie Wilkins founded the Columbia Summer Repertory Dance Company with a desire to offer dancers more options in a city focused heavily on ballet. They started with the financial sponsorship of the Jasper Project, a plan focused on summer performances (Columbia’s dance offseason) and a sold-out debut performance in 2019 which was followed by a sold-out concert in 2021. The company has extended their season length and become a 501c3 non-profit organization. The group’s popularity among Columbia natives comes from their commitment to exploring refreshing narratives and styles of dance in their work.

The Columbia Repertory Dance Company will perform IN OUR TIME on Friday, August 18th, 2023, at 8 PM and Saturday, August 19th, 2023, at 8 PM at CMFA Artspace (914 Pulaski St, Columbia, SC 29201). Admission is $30 for this event, and more info and tickets can be found at www.coladance.com  or https://donorbox.org/events/479213 for Friday and https://donorbox.org/events/479216 for Saturday.

Pictured left to right - Ashlee Taylor who performs with Moving Body Dance and the Johnson Company in addition to CRDC

Sakura Oka - 2017 World Ballet Competition Bronze Medalist who has performed with Columbia Classical Ballet, Ann Brodie’s Carolina Ballet, and Columbia City Ballet

This program is supported in part by H-tax funding from the City of Columbia and by the South Carolina Arts Commission which is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and collaborates in its work with the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and South Arts. 

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The Columbia Repertory Dance Company’s mission is to broaden the experience of professional dance artists and patrons in Columbia, SC through multidisciplinary collaborative performances year-round. We aim to retain the talents of South Carolina dance artists and provide a spectrum of professional opportunities while inspiring and developing a broader and deeper understanding of dance in Columbia and surrounding areas.

For more information about the Columbia Repertory Dance Company, please visit www.coladance.com or follow on Facebook and Instagram

7 Questions for Columbia Summer Rep Dance Co. Director & Co-Founder Stephanie Wilkins

 I think if COVID has taught us anything, it's life can be short, and it can be hard, and you better get out there and experience things you've never done before.

Stephanie Wilkins - phot by Kevin Kyzer

The Columbia Summer Repertory Dance Company (CSRDC) was founded in 2019 as an opportunity for Columbia-based dancers to work and practice in their off-season while staying in the city they love and to bring unique performances to Columbia patrons. After a sold-out opening performance in 2019, CSRDC is back with their second annual performance, Limitless.

Jasper, CSDRC’s fiscal agent, sat down with CSDRC’s co-founder and Artistic Director, Stephanie Wilkins, to hear her thoughts about the upcoming performances.

JASPER: How did you feel after your first performance in 2019?

WILKINS: I was just overwhelmed with joy at how well it went and at the support that the Jasper Project and the local community gave us. We only did one night the first time, and we completely sold out and had to turn people away at the door. I’m still so incredibly overwhelmed by that generosity and, of course, so happy that dancers and artists were able to get paid for what they love. I was so excited for the next season, and then COVID happened. But we continued to work through the summer last year with safety precautions. It was actually a good choreographic challenge for me to choreograph with everyone wearing a mask and, of course, no partnering. Both of the dances we made during COVID last summer will actually be featured in this show.

Stephanie with sister chorographer Angela Gallo after 2019 show

JASPER: Who is performing in the show this time around?  

WILKINS: Excluding me, there are eight dancers—four women and four men: Bonnie Boiter-Jolley [who also serves as CSDRC’s co-founder and Managing Director], Abby McDowell, Nicole Carrion, Jennifer Becker Lee, Joshua Van Dyke, Sam Huberty, Nicholas White, and Josh Alexander, who just danced in the most recent Superbowl Halftime with The Weekend. I’m choreographing several dances, and there are three guest choreographers: Dale Lam, who is the Artistic Director of the Columbia City Jazz Conservatory; Angela Gallo, who is the Dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Coker University; and Terrance Henderson, who was the Artistic Director of Columbia’s Vibrations Dance Company’s for over a decade. We also have a couple of musical acts that will function as interludes in between the dances and as part of two of the dances as well: Katie Leitner, who is a local singer-songwriter, and Claire Bryant, who is a cello professor at the University of South Carolina and is currently in the band of Moulin Rouge on Broadway.  

The Columbia Summer Rep Dance Company 2021

JASPER: You didn’t dance last show—what made you dance this time?

WILKINS: Good question. I am seriously terrified. I mean, I'm not so terrified of the group piece, the Carolina Shag, which is just so much fun and serves as a tribute to my dad. But the solo dance is what scares me. You know, I'm a lot older than these dancers—I could be their mother—but I'm not done yet. I'm in good shape, and even though my dancing career is different than it used to be, I can dance. I had two major knee surgeries in the past four years, so maybe I can't do the crazy stuff I could do when I was their age or younger, but I'm more seasoned and more expressive. It's been a very long time since I performed, so I'm really scared but excited too. But you know, you face fear. You're scared as hell, but you do it anyway. That’s why I’m dancing.

Stephanie on Gyrotonic equipment 2019

JASPER: What should the audience expect if they attend a performance? 

WILKINS:Well, right now we’re looking at having at least nine dances, and we may have one or two more. There will be the two musical acts, and altogether the show will probably be about an hour and a half with one intermission. We have a little something for everybody. There’s a lot of contemporary dance and dances that cover the range of the human emotional spectrum. You know, people always joke with me, ‘Stephanie, can’t you choregraph something happy?’ but this is my art and my way of communicating and expressing my own emotions, which of course the dancers make their own and express in their own unique ways. We have a couple lighter pieces, like the shag, which might be the lightest moment of the show. Some pieces are mournful, some are lonely, some are angry.It’s a group of people using their bodies to show the depth of human emotion and how it wears on more than our faces and inner bodies. 

JASPER: Do you have a favorite number or moment in the show? 

WILKINS: We’re still doing tweaks, but I think it's turning out to be a piece called “Seven,” which will be the piece where Claire performs with her cello. It was written by her friend, Andrea Casarrubios, who is a Spanish cellist living in New York, and she wrote it in honor of the 7:00pm hour during COVID in NYC where people would hang out of their windows, come out onto the street, and bang pots and pans and make noise in honor of the heroes, the frontline workers. I mean, I'm dreaming about that piece. I still haven't finished it, you know, I don't want to screw it up. It's such a beautiful composition, and it’s so beautifully played by Claire, and the dancers are exquisite. I'm ending the show with it because even though it's a mournful piece about the pandemic, it's hopeful too because it's about a moment in time where every night people were together—even though they couldn't come together and touch each other, they were celebrating, being alive, and making noise.

JASPER: What made you call the show Limitless? 

WILKINS: I keep a journal where I jot down words that inspire me or might inspire or be relevant to a dance. I sent three choices from these to Bonnie for the title, and we both tended to lean toward limitless. I think all of us can say that we've limited ourselves in our lives in some way, shape, or form. I personally can say that in a lot of different aspects of my life, but specifically the dance world, I feel like I really pigeonholed myself. I was so sure of being a contemporary dancer, and one time my dad said to me, ‘Stephanie, dancers dance. That's what they do. And if you're dancing, you're doing what you love, regardless of if it's your favorite type.’ And I was just so stubborn, but I finally have opened myself up so much to anything and everything that is in the realm of the dance world,challenging myself as a choreographer and dancer. I’ve learned, even though it took so long, that I don't want to limit myself anymore. I don’t think anyone should. And that's where limitless stemmed from.

Stephanie with CSRDC co-founder Bonnie Boiter-Jolley post performance

JASPER: Why do you believe people should experience Limitless?  

WILKINS: Often when I come across people in Columbia, whether clients, friends, or family, they either have a never been to a dance performance or their only exposure to dance has been maybe the Nutcracker as a child. So, this is an experience where if people are the least a bit interested in artistic presentations—whether they like dance or music or art or drama or theater—this has something for everyone. And it’s pretty phenomenal to watch the absolute artistry and athleticism of these dancers. Beyond that, it'll challenge your thinking—it'll make you feel something that maybe you didn't think about before. It'll make you laugh, and it'll make you cry. I think if COVID has taught us anything, it's life can be short, and it can be hard, and you better get out there and experience things you've never done before.This is a good chance to do that in our little, special town—a chance to be limitless, right here in Columbia.

CSRDC’s Limitless will premiere two consecutive nights:

Friday, August 13th and Saturday, August 14th, both at 8:00pm at Trustus Theatre.

You can purchase tickets at

https://summerrepdance.bpt.mehttps://summerrepdance.bpt.me

(Editor’s note: The Jasper Project is serving as the fiscal agent for the Summer Rep Dance Company, and we are encouraging this amazingly hard-working group of artists to start their own 501c3. We believe in them this much! But since this may be the last time we try to raise funds for them under the auspices of the Jasper Project, I wanted to say a little something.

THIS is what art is all about! These dance artists love what they do so much that they are changing the rules and upping the game. Their spirits and their artistic instruments — their bodies — miss dance so much during their off-season that they CREATED THEIR OWN OPPORTUNITY to dance. For themselves and for us.

Right now, we are about $3000 short of our fund raising goal of $12,000. All of the money we raise goes directly into putting on this performance — paying a modest amount to the dancers, choreographers, costumer, and crew with just a little bit toward advertising. Nothing goes to overhead or administration. Nothing to the Jasper Project. No frills.

This is art in its purest form.

So, here’s the humble ask.

If you can, please pat these artists on the back by offering your financial support either by buying tickets ($25 in advance with 3 different donor opportunities through BROWN PAPER TICKETS @ https://summerrepdance.bpt.me) OR visiting their page on this website and clicking on DONATE NOW.

Thank you for doing your part to promote artists creating grass roots opportunities to bring art to the city in its purest form.

Thanks & Take Care,

Cindi

Columbia Summer Rep Dance Company Keeps Cola’s Talent Local by Stephanie Allen

“What would have happened had they stayed here — what if that talent had been able to thrive here in Columbia because they were given the opportunity to pursue … what they were maybe really missing out on?

Josh Alexander, Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, Jennifer Becker Lee, Josh Van Dyke, Nicholas White, Abby McDowell, Nicole Carrion - photo — Kevin Kyzer

The Columbia Summer Rep Dance Company brings jobs to dancers and shows to local audiences during the summer months. After founding the company in 2019, Bonnie Boiter-Jolley and Stephanie Wilkins are looking to do “something different.” This summer, after suspending the program due to COVID-19, the company is back with a limited engagement performance on August 13th & 14th of LIMITLESS. 

Columbia only had two professional ballet companies, according to Boiter-Jolley — Columbia City Ballet and Columbia Classical Ballet. Their respective seasons each last from around September to March, leaving half the year vacant of professional ballet for Columbia audiences — and several months without local work for performers.  

photo credit Kevin Kyzer

Boiter-Jolley had long discussed the notion of working through the summer with other dancers at the Columbia City Ballet, but the idea lacked momentum until she started working with Wilkins. That’s when the option of starting a summer company came to life.  

According to Boiter-Jolley, Wilkins had the creativity, energy, and motivation to get the project of bringing dance to Columbia’s off-season started. Wilkins had been an adjunct professor at Columbia College and USC and owns a Pilates studio in Columbia. “I kinda got burnt out in the university world and wanted to supplement my Pilates life with my artistic life and have a dance company of my own,” Wilkins says.  

The Jasper Project serves as the fiscal agent for the Columbia Summer Repertory Dance Company until the organization acquires its own non-profit status.

“We have all this talent in Columbia that has to leave,” Wilkins says, “and we’d rather they stay here.”

After just five weeks of preparation, they were able to raise enough funds to debut their first show in 2019 and were, notably, able to pay both the dancers and the choreographers. Dancers and choreographers often have to find work outside of Columbia during the summer months due to their shortened seasons. “We have all this talent in Columbia that has to leave,” Wilkins says, “and we’d rather they stay here.” 

According to Boiter-Jolley, there’s been a longstanding rivalry between Columbia City Ballet and Columbia Classical Ballet —  a sense of competition that, in her opinion, is “silly,” given the breadth of talent that has originated in Columbia. Columbia dancers have made their way into the New York City Ballet, Broadway, and European companies, to name a few. “What would have happened had they stayed here — what if that talent had been able to thrive here in Columbia because they were given the opportunity to pursue … what they were maybe really missing out on?” Boiter-Jolley asks.  

photo Kevin Kyzer

Boiter-Jolley questions the way in which Columbia limits itself, suggesting that the Columbia professional dance scene has been too strictly defined. Her goal with the new dance company is to create something new that is just as valuable and intellectually stimulating as traditional professional dances.  

Aside from two small pieces that premiered in March, everything for the company’s upcoming season is entirely new. The dancers started rehearsing last summer, wearing masks, spacing out, and taking additional precautions. COVID-19 presented specific challenges to Wilkins as a choreographer, who has a penchant for partner-based dancing. Now that the members of the company have been vaccinated, some of the choreography has been adjusted to allow for more closeness between the dancers.  

Boiter-Jolley intends for their August show to be a “pure and heartfelt” experience for everyone participating, without a sense of competition with other organizations.

This season will feature guest choreographers Dale Lam, head of Columbia City Jazz Conservatory, and Angela Gallo, the dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Coker University, in addition to dancers Joshua Alexander, Abby McDowell, Nicholas White, Nicole Carrion, Josh Van Dyke, Samuel Huberty, and Jennifer Becker Lee. Alexander  appeared in Hairspray Live! on ABC, So You Think You Can Dance, and the Superbowl halftime show. 

The company is now only a few weeks away from its next performance, titled LIMITLESS. Boiter-Jolley intends for their August show to be a “pure and heartfelt” experience for everyone participating, without a sense of competition with other organizations. “We’re doing this because we love it,” Wilkins says, “and we can’t wait to share it with the city.” Both women look forward to seeing maskless dancers on stage, watching their facial expressions of emotion, and seeing the breath that carries their movements.   

“There’s room for all of us,”

Wilkins mentioned the importance of fundraising efforts because, in spite of this genuine passion, the dancers and choreographers deserve to be paid. Based on funds, Wilkins would like to travel with the dancers and take them to international festivals. Additionally, Wilkins would like to see more local collaboration and mutual support.   

NICOLE CARRION AND NICHOLAS WHITE - photo Kevin Kyzer

The women want viewers unfamiliar to the dance scene to watch their performances and feel something — regardless of what that emotion is. They encourage longtime supporters of Columbia dance not to limit themselves, to see something different with them, and, specifically, donate.  

The women are open to conversations and questions from anyone interested in their work and want to avoid competition. “There’s room for all of us,” Wilkins says.

LIMITLESS

AUGUST 13TH & 14TH

8 PM

TRUSTUS THEATRE

TICKETS & SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES HERE 

Columbia Dance and Improvisation Festival happening NOW - blog by Jasper Intern Abby Davis

The first annual Columbia Dance and Improvisation Festival (CDIF) is taking place in Columbia from Thursday, August 7^th through Sunday, August 10^th.  The event is being hosted by The Power Company Collaborative at Columbia College.  Dancers will spend the four days participating in a wide array of classes, improvisational jams, informal performances, and discussions. The four-day intensive aims to bring South Carolina dancers together to practice improvisational skills, showcase works in progress, and share feedback.  Associate director and instructor Amanda Ling says she hopes people leave with “more security in dancing and moving through space with other people.”

CDIF is offering six different classes—contemporary dance technique, contemporary dance fusion, yoga and somatic reflection, contact improvisation, improvisational methods, and site-specific dance and composition. Instructors include Martha Brim, Marcy Yonkey-Clayton, Amanda Ling, Ashlee Taylor, Erin Bailey, Angela Gallo, and Terrance Henderson, the 2014 Jasper Artist of the Year in Dance.

In addition to technique classes and morning yoga, there will be three improvisational jams throughout the festival.  Amanda Ling says that she is mostly looking forward to the improvisational jams, “that is the time for people to just be spontaneous, and you never know how it’s going to turn out.  Sometimes they’re really subtle, reflective, and meditative, and other times they get really wild and crazy where everyone is dancing and laughing and the music is loud.  It can really go either way, and I enjoy both directions, so I’m excited to see which way they will go.”

“Dance, dessert, and discussion” will take place on Saturday night, with the dance aspect consisting of an informal performance from any dancers that wish to share.  This gives the dancers an opportunity to showcase some of their works, finished or unfinished, and get constructive feedback from fellow dancers.  The Power Company Collaborative, Columbia College, Coker College, and Winthrop College will all be participating in the showcase.

While this is only the first annual Columbia Dance and Improvisational Festival, The Power Company Collaborative is already looking forward to the future of the event.  They are interested in adding a component that would involve younger dancers, offering housing to people coming from out of town, and expanding to include other states and even other disciplines. Martha Brim, director of The Power Company Collaborative, says “The Power Company has just gone through a transformation of becoming more collaborative, so I think it would be wonderful to open it up to other arts and disciplines beyond dance.”  For this year, however, Brim hopes that when the dancers leave the festival, “everyone feels rejuvenated, artistically and personally, and really connected with a community that’s growing.”

- Abby Davis