Cola Rep Dance Company Performs at 701 CCA - Sunday September 8th

701 Center for Contemporary Art

is proud to present the

Columbia Repertory Dance Company

in performance in the 701 CCA gallery on

Sunday, September 8, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.


This exciting event showcases choreography by CRDC co-founder and artistic director, Stephanie Wilkins, who was inspired by Jordan Sheridan’s exhibition, “Duality, currently on view. Sheridan’s interactive exhibition will serve as the backdrop for this unique performance. Prepare to be moved as the dancers bring Sheridan’s artistic vision to life in a powerful fusion of art and dance.

“We are looking forward to adapting some of our favorite pieces of rep from the last few years to perform in and around Jordan’s installation,” says Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, CRDC co-founder and managing director. “The nature of Jordan’s work evokes the idea of movement with the manipulation of light through glass and fabric. As both a dancer and an arts patron, experiencing the highs and lows of these pieces as they are magnified by her work will be something really special.”

Columbia Repertory Dance Company - photo by Ashley Concannon

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE!

701 CCA is a dynamic hub for contemporary artistic exploration, experimentation, and engagement. Founded in 2007, CCA functions as a catalyst for outstanding contemporary art, engaging diverse communities and diverse artists in meaningful dialogue. Considered one of the largest non-profit art centers in South Carolina, 701 CCA produces five to six contemporary art exhibitions annually, is free to visit and is open to the public five days a week.

701 CCA is located at 701 Whaley Street, 2nd Floor, Columbia, SC 29201.

During exhibitions, hours are Thurs-Sun 1-5.

For more information, visit www.701cca.org.

Cola Rep Dance Company Performs SAME PALM for Columbia Audiences Before Traveling to NY for International Performance at the DUMBO Dance Festival

If you’re tired of the same old fairytale ballet performances where the spirit of the dancer is subsumed by the restraints of only one person’s imagination, come out to CMFA next Friday and Saturday nights as Columbia Repertory Dance Company presents Same Palm, their first concert of the summer season.

“The title Same Palm comes from our constant investigation of holding pain and joy in the same palm, and how these diverse emotions must coexist for us to get through this life, especially the sometimes-brutal parts,” says Stephanie Wilkins, CRDC co-founder and artistic director.  

Company dancers include Joshua Alexander, Erin Bailey, Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, Shannon Chapman (understudy), Ashlee Daniels, Cecily Davis, Emily Jordan, Carrie Preus, Megan Saylors, Jalen Scriven, Jack Thompson, Olivia Timmerman, and Stephanie Wilkins.

“This show we are also celebrating the launch of the Cola Rep Young Choreographer Initiative with the premier of our apprentice Jalen Scriven’s Changes, adds Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, CRDC co-founder and managing director. “Scriven, an Alumni of Columbia City Jazz Conservatory and a student at University of Southern California, worked with the company to create the piece which he says references ‘holding a mirror to yourself.’ It’s impressive to work with a young artist who possesses the capacity to communicate what he wants clearly but is also so open to collaboration. It’s inspiring and makes me hopeful for the future of dance.” 

In addition to Wilkins’ choreography, the company is excited to welcome works from other major SC choreographers including Erin Bailey Angela Gallo, and Terrance Henderson. “Terrance’s piece is a beautiful blend of ritual and contemporary dance that truly honors both his culture and ancestors,” Wilkins says. “Erin and Ashlee‘s duet is a perfect example of what brings them the most happiness, which is moving in and out of the floor and over and under and on top of each other with lovely contact partnering. Angela’s piece is, as usual, set to a very interesting score and the movement in it embodies her very essence, I see her in all of the dancers and the choreography. Erin’s Kinect is athletic and powerful, but also sinuous … I know the work of these three choreographers and what I love about them is that their pieces are genuine and true to themselves, but they also try to break open their own personal stories and use their creativity to challenge themselves, their dancers, and the viewer.”

Columbia Repertory Dance Company was founded in 2019 by Bonnie Boiter-Jolley and Stephanie Wilkins as a professional company that would resolve the age-old Columbia problem of already established dance companies only offering contracts to their dancers for six or fewer months per year. This impacted the dancers, who still had to stay in shape, (professional dancers must take class from 5 – 7 days per week to stay fit), and also had to pay for their living expenses, by offering them paying dance gigs, artistic stimulation, and the opportunity to stay in shape without going broke. It impacted dance audiences by providing new, original, and innovative contemporary ballet performances from their favorite Columbia-based dance artists, with choreography by a large variety of some of Columbia’s top choreographers.

Sadly, in response to the founding of Columbia Repertory Dance Company, which became a non-profit 501c3 in 2022, South Carolina Ballet, which has recently changed its name again from Columbia City Ballet, began illegally forbidding its dancers from participating in any off-season, off-contract performances with other local companies such as Columbia Repertory Dance Company or Ann Brodie’s Carolina Ballet.

But this didn’t hold Columbia Repertory Dance Company back. The Company has grown to include two unique dance concerts per summer, as well as additional local performances such as Live on Lincoln, and traveling to New York to be honored as the only South Carolina dance company featured (2023 and 2024) in the DUMBO Dance Festival.

A dance festival celebrating it’s 23rd year in Brooklyn, NY, DUMBO Dance Festival stands for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass with the festival’s official description stating, “2024 DDF features 50 contemporary dance troupes combining over 400 artists who will present solo, chamber, and full-scale works. Dancers from across the United States, and internationally from Switzerland, Germany, Colombia, Mexico, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea will join New York’s active dance community to offer the full range of new directions in dance in the 21st century.” 

The festival takes place over four days in June and highlights dance companies making significant artistic contributions to the dance world. Cola Rep Dance Co is the only company from North or South Carolina invited to perform. 

“We are honored and excited to have the opportunity for the second year in a row to act as ambassadors for South Carolina dance by taking members of our company to perform on stage with the other wonderful groups selected. We see it as an important way of remaining part of the global conversation on the evolution of the art form,” says Boiter-Jolley. 

Same Palm will be performed at 7:30 on Friday and Saturday nights, June 21st and 22nd, at Columbia Music Festival Association at 914 Pulaski Street in Columbia’s historic Congaree Vista. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door.  

While you’re reserving your seats for Same Palm, mark your calendars for August 17th and 18th when Columbia Rep Dance Company performs their second concert of the summer, How to Fall Down, at the Koger Center for the Arts. How to Fall Down features the work of choreographers Dale Lam, Jennifer Deckert, and Simone Cuttino, as well as in-house choreography by Wilkins. Tickets will be available soon. 

 

News from Columbia Repertory Dance Company - Riggs CreateAthon and DUMBO Dance Fest in Brooklyn

At Jasper, we have a special place in our hearts for Columbia Repertory Dance Company for many reasons. To start with, the company is working to change an unhealthy dance culture in Columbia that still supports dancers weighing in before they can dance and being suspended without pay when their weight comes in a bit high. We like the way they choreograph around dancers of all ages and sizes. And given the reality that the dance season in Columbia is rarely more than 6 months long — and professional dancers here tend to be forbidden to dance with other companies, even when they are off-contract — we like the way CRDC provides a dance home for professional dancers who rail against this unfair practice. On top of this, we’re particularly proud of this young company because the organization started out as a Jasper project before becoming a non-profit dance company in their own right. So we’re happy to share news from the CRDC with you. 

Columbia Repertory Dance Company is thrilled to announce that they are one of five groups chosen as clients for Riggs Partners 2024 CreateAthon"Riggs Partners founded CreateAthon in 1998 as an innovative way to provide probono marketing services to nonprofits in South Carolina." Over a two day period in March, a team at the design firm will work to help supply CRDC with the marketing tools and direction they need to better fulfill their mission of broadening the patron experience and extending the dance season in Columbia.

In more news for CRDC, for the second year in a row, Cola Rep Dance Company has been invited to perform in Brooklyn, NY at the DUMBO Dance Festival. Happening June 27-30, this year the company's selected repertoire is Stephanie Wilkins's Ache, performed most recently in their 2023 concert, In Our Time. Last season, the company took seven dancers to perform the works Agitato and Forgiveness Part 2 at the same festival.

 

Auditions!!!

Columbia Repertory Dance Company still has some openings for dancers. They are seeking professional dancers with availability April through September on Monday and Friday mornings, weekends and the occasional evening.

Send headshot, resume, and work samples to Colarepdanceco@gmail.com

SC Phil presents a Brilliantly Collaborative Holiday Event with Some of SC's Finest Vocalists, Dancers, and of course, the SC Philharmonic!

SC PHILHARMONIC BRINGS SINGERS, DANCERS AND SANTA TO KOGER CENTER FOR “HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS”

Collaborative creation from Music Director Morihiko Nakahara and Director Chad Henderson promises to be an extravaganza

Vocalist Kanika Moore

Kanika Moore

Katie Leitner

Catherine Hunsinger

Samuel McWhite

Columbia Repertory Dance Company

Santa

Morihiko Nakahara

& the SC Philharmonic

In a brilliantly collaborative act The South Carolina Philharmonic presents Home for the Holidays on Thursday, December 21, 2023 at 7:00 PM at the Koger Center for the Arts under the baton of Music Director Morihiko Nakahara. After years of sold out holiday concerts at Harbison Theatre, The SC Philharmonic is bringing their holiday-themed event to the Koger Center this year for one night only and making it truly grand. The show itself is a collaboration between SC Phil Maestro Morihiko Nakahara and award-winning theatre director Chad Henderson, the former Artistic Director of Trustus Theatre and current Marketing Director of the SC Phil. Tickets may be purchased by visiting 

scphilharmonic.com or by calling the Koger Center Box Office at 803-251-2222.

 

More from our friends at the SC Philharmonic – 

Home for the Holidays is positioned to be one of the last large-scale holiday-themed events of the season, with the performance scheduled on December 21st. The orchestra anticipates that this concert will be appealing to families who have gathered for the holidays, and to those who are looking for new traditions. “We wanted to create a large-scale concert event due to our move to the Koger Center,” says theatre director Chad Henderson. “Audiences are going to get a traditional orchestral experience in the first act, and then in the second half we’re going to enjoy the alchemy of multi-disciplinary work with uplifting, moving and energetic performances from amazing singers and dancers alongside the SC Phil.” 

Singer Kanika Moore is known internationally as the lead singer of Doom Flamingo (Charleston, SC) and Tauk (Long Island, NY). This Charleston native’s original tone and seamless effort is almost impossible to ignore, and this is quite possibly the reason she was named the Charleston City Paper Soul/R&B Act of the Year in 2019. Joining Moore are Columbia singers Katie Leitner of Say Femme, Catherine Hunsinger of Rex Darling, and the magnetic musical theatre veteran Samuel McWhite. 

Wanting to dive deeper into multi-disciplinary work, the SC Phil invited The Columbia Repertory Dance Company to collaborate with the orchestra. In its fourth season, 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. Led by Artistic Director Stephanie Wilkins and Managing Director Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, the company is bringing emotional and athletic work to the Koger stage – a trademark of this company which performed at the DUMBO Dance Festival in NYC in Summer 2023.  

The concert will boast two arrangements by Columbia’s Dick Goodwin, famed jazz artist and composer. Goodwin’s arrangements of “All I Want for Christmas” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” will be featured in the second act, with the latter serving as the finale of the evening. Audiences can also expect to hear classic orchestral fare like Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride,” alongside popular songs like “White Christmas” and “Santa Claus is Back in Town,” and readings of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and the famous editorial by Francis Church “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” All of these elements combined with production design from Chad Henderson and Koger Center Technical Director Steve Borders will make for a sensational evening of symphonic spectacle that will entertain the whole family. 

“In the end, we want audiences to have a fulfilling and rich experience,” says Henderson. “We want people to feel a range of emotions while they’re with us. We’re using the undeniable universality of music, dance and, at times, theatre to provide audiences with a joyful evening that will be uplifting, energizing and powerful. Hopefully this will become a signature event for the SC Phil where friends and families join us every year to ignite their celebrations.” 

The SC Philharmonic’s Home for the Holidays will take the Koger Center stage on Thursday, December 21, 2023 at 7:00 PM at. Concert ticket prices range from $10 to $40 currently, and they can be purchased at scphilharmonic.com or by calling the Koger Center Box Office (803) 251-2222.

Student Rush tickets are available for $10 starting thirty minutes before the concert, and group rates for 10 or more are available by writing kathryn@scphilharmonic.com

 

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. 

 ~~~~~

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

 

Concert in the Gardens, September 22nd at Seibels House & Garden

One of the few good things to come out of COVID was the collaboration between the South Carolina Philharmonic and the Historic Columbia Foundation. Unable to perform indoors at the Koger Center, the Phil teamed up with Historic Columbia to present concerts outside in such beautiful settings as The Hampton Preston gardens and the Seibels House & Gardens. My friends and I attended the “inaugural” event and haven’t missed a concert since.

Thursday’s program features a string quartet, presenting a concert of light classics.  Columbia Repertory Dance Company will also be performing. 

You can arrive at 1601 Richland St. any time after 6:00 p.m. The concert starts at 7:00.  We always bring folding chairs and/or blankets, a picnic basket chock full of goodies, and bubbles. (What’s a picnic without bubbles?). Wine is available at the event for $5/glass, and you can become a member of the Historic Columbia Foundation at a discounted rate.

Tickets are $20.00 and may be purchased online.

See you there!

- Libby Campbell

An Evening with the Columbia Repertory Dance Company THIS SATURDAY

The Public is invited to an evening with the city’s newest professional dance organization, the Columbia Repertory Dance Company, on Saturday, June 18th at 7 pm at Columbia Music Festival Association - 914 Pulaski Street.

There will be snacks and adult beverages, as well as an opportunity to learn more about the dance company and its mission for performances and growth in the South Carolina Midlands. Attendees will also get an inside look at works in progress and meet new company members.

The event is hosted by the board of directors for the Columbia Repertory Dance Company including company founders Bonnie Boiter-Jolley and Stephanie Wilkins.

There is a suggested donation of $25 which can be made

online

or at the door.

COLUMBIA REPERTORY DANCE COMPANY MAKES CHARLESTON DEBUT AT CANNON PARK AS PICCOLO SPOLETO POP-UP SELECTION

The Columbia Repertory Dance Company will make its Charleston debut at Cannon Park on May 29, 2022 as an official selection of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival.

This dance concert is presented as part of Piccolo Spoleto’s new Pop-Up program which transforms neighborhood parks and public places around Charleston into pop-up performance spaces.

This performance will also feature performances by Columbia pop band Say Femme with Charleston dancer and choreographer Jenny Broe opening.

The concert will begin at 7:00 PM at Cannon Park, and admission is free to the public.

In the company’s third season, Columbia Repertory Dance Company will be premiering new pieces from their 2022 season featuring works by Artistic Director Stephanie Wilkins. Attendees will experience athleticism and emotionally evocative performances that have become a trademark for the group over the last three years.

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 backing of a local arts organization, 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 2020. In the past year, 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 on Sunday, May 29, 2022 at 7:00 PM at Cannon Park (131 Rutledge Ave, Charleston, SC 29401). Admission is free for this public event, and more info can be found at http://www.piccolospoleto.com/ or at www.coladance.com.