Rhythmically Speaking presents The Cohort 2023: Stage and Screen
A reimagining of RS’ long-running annual August production, The Cohort is built to support and share different perspectives on and via the vibrancy of jazz and American social dance ideas, now through both staged and screened works.
Stage
Thursday, August 17 – Saturday, August 19 at 7:30pm
Saturday, August 19 at 2:00pm
Screen
Saturday, August 19 at 4:00pm
The Southern Theater
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The Cohort 2023: Stage & Screen – marks our fifteenth annual summer show – yes, 15 years! – and second year including a film screening. This production features the following artists/works:
Stage:
Cara Hagan – Visiting Artist, New York City, NY
Carlos R.A. Jones – Visiting Artist, Buffalo, NY
Erinn Liebhard – RS Artistic and Executive Director
Laura Osterhaus Rosenstone – Local Artist
Hagan’s new piece is a whirlwind ride through grooves in different tempos and meters, with all the audio and visual provided by body percussion, and Jones’ new work, Groove: A Communal Love invites everyone from dancer to observer to sit in the pocket of the music and ride the joy of feeling the funk. Liebhard’s revisited piece Feist(meist)er is a lively romp exploring the cacophony of everyone in the room wanting to be the leader, and the harmony that can be found when that role gets shared, and Osterhaus Rosenstone’s new work what time is an embodied exploration of how we define, track, and relate through time, asking questions such as how do we experience time as individuals/a collective, and how can we find agency and freedom within that?
Screen:
Nadav Heyman – Los Angeles, CA
Erinn Liebhard – RS Artistic and Executive Director
Taylor Madgett – Denver, CO
Anthony Morigerato – New York City, NY
Yusuf Nasir – Los Angeles, CA
Matthew Olwell – Staunton, VA
Alexis Robbins – New Haven, CT
Heyman’s Old Man at the Corner Store follows an elderly man crossing paths with neighborhood mischief, and Liebhard’s RadioBody is a wintery romp exploring the toil and triumph embedded in the work of pioneering alt-electronic band Radiohead. Madgett’s Tenets is a fusion of Afro dance, House and Hip-Hop dance styles seeking to establish American street dance as a direct extension of West African culture, and Morigerto’s To: Everything I Love tracks a young woman falling in love who enlists her personal A.I. system to decide if the relationship is worth it. Nasir’s Regret to Inform You follows a difficult day in the life of a performer becoming undone after one too many rejections and retreating into a dance fantasy to combat the reality of a society that has no place for him. Olwell’s Oh, Excuse Me features two dancer-clowns exploring eccentricity, compromise, agreement and disagreement, and the ever-human desire to be seen, and Robbins’ Deconstructed navigates tap rhythms with and sans shoes.
Our mission is to spark vibrancy and connectedness through jazz and American social dance ideas, and this show always delivers – we hope you’ll join us to experience this joy through jazz!