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.