20MOONS Dance Theater returns to the stage with their new show “Cloud Bridge Arriving”. (Courtesy of 20MOONS Dance Theater)
Shari Gottlieb
‘Cloud Bridge Arriving’ first staged production since 2019
20MOONS Dance Theater has big questions for us to think about.
In his latest production, “Cloud Bridge Arriving”, his first live show in three years, six dancers will be accompanied in their performance space by two musicians.
“Cloud Bridge Arriving” will be played this weekend and next at Stillwater in Durango – a new venue for the company.
“Right now it’s a space that we’ve converted into a production space,” said co-artistic director Jessica Perino. “It will be set up in the round, so the audience will be seated in a circle around the performance space and we will be dancing in the middle.”
The production is looking to try and start making sense of all that we’ve been through in recent years, said co-artistic director Anne Bartlett.
“We dance from our own experience of the moment – that’s what we create from. We really want to create an authentic experience of what we’re all going through right now in the world,” Bartlett said. “That’s basically what it’s based on – things happening in the world and it’s upsetting and disturbing and sometimes feels unsettled and chaotic, and how do we make sense of that? And how do we understand where do we go from here? And so the show is based on this idea of taking where we are right now and trying to project where we’re going and maybe why, or a meaning for what we live and where we are going.
What: 20MOONS Dance Theater presents “Cloud Bridge Arriving”.
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday (April 15) and Saturday and April 22 and 23.
Or: Stillwater, 1316 Main Ave, Ste. VS
Tickets: $25, available online at https://bit.ly/3O6rYHD.
More information: Visit www.20moons.com.
Like just about everything else in Durango on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, 20MOONS had to shelve its spring 2020 plans, but that doesn’t mean the company has stopped working together, a said Perino.
“We had a show scheduled for May 2020, and obviously that was cut short,” she said. “We moved together all the time; we didn’t take a break – we did a movie, and we had a community offering last summer, which was really amazing, like a participatory show/event. But this is our first real production that we have since 2019.”
And while the company has continued to work together over the last few odd years, Perino said everyone is eager to get back in front of an audience.
“We are very happy to engage with the community again,” she said. “We’ve been together, which has been really nurturing and important through all the ever-changing landscape waves that have happened. We’ve been together, but we haven’t been with the wider community as we all know, to connect with people through our movement and our creation. So we’re excited to reconnect in this way and just bring – I know it’s already happening, but to continue bringing live performances back to town. And to bring dance back into the world – away from the screen and into real life experience.