For Immediate Release:  August 30, 2010

ARC Pasadena Hosts
Colin Connor: Draftwork
New Choreographic Explorations
Sunday, September 12, 2010

LOS ANGELES, CA – ARC Pasadena hosts Colin Connor: Draftwork, new choreographic explorations created by award-winning choreographer Colin Connor on Sunday, September 12, 2010. Connor’s work, which he has presented across the Americas and Europe, is acclaimed for its rich musicality and physical excitement.  This is a unique Los Angeles area opportunity to see the beginnings of new work by Connor in collaboration with four glorious dancers: Katie Diamond, Robin Wilson, Cameron Evans, and Andrew Wojtal. The showing is the culmination of a two-week intensive experimental creative period in the studio, generously provided by ARC Pasadena. The single performance will be held Sunday evening from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. in ARC’s gorgeous new dance space.  The performance is free.  Space is limited – guests are encouraged to arrive early to secure a seat.  Light refreshments will follow the showing.  ARC Pasadena is located at 1158 East Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91106.  For more information on the artist please visit http://colinconnor.com.

Colin Connor: Draftwork finds the choreographer working in collaboration with dancers Katie Diamond, Robin Wilson, Cameron Evans, and Andrew Wojtal:

• Katie Diamond has been a soloist for four years with the Limón Dance Company.  She has also  performed with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Group, Contra Costa Ballet, Pam Tanowitz Dance, Cornfield Dance, the Albany Berkshire Ballet, Daniel Charon, and Jessica Gaynor Dance.  She teaches at the Limón Institute and will be a guest teacher at CalArts this Fall 2010.

• Robin Wilson, a member of Helios, was a member of the Limón Dance Company and Los Angeles Movement Arts.  She also dances with Randé Dorn Dance Company.

• Cameron Evans, a student at CalArts, has performed David Gordon’s work at Dance Theater Workshop in New York.

• Andrew Wojtal is a recipient of a 2010 Princess Grace Dance Award. Also a CalArts student, he has choreographed and performed at REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater) in Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex, and the Bates Dance Festival. This summer, he danced with Island Moving Company at the Great Friends Dance Festival.

Colin Connor is a Los Angeles-based choreographer whose over fifty commissions span the worlds of contemporary, ballet, and flamenco.  His work draws from a large range of influences – musical, literary, social and scientific – all used to bring attention back to the communicative power of the human body.  Connor’s work has been presented at numerous venues across the Americas and Europe, including the Joyce Theater in New York, the Moment’Homme Festival in Montreal, The Holland Festival in Den Hague, and the Festival Internacional de Danza Contemporánea in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.  “Full Sail (In Praise of Storms)” won Sarasota Ballet’s International Choreography Competition. He was also a winner of the Charleston Ballet Theatre’s Fountainhead Choreography Competition, twice a guest choreographer at both The Yard and The Carlisle Project, and given a creative residency at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography Commissions.  Creations of his work have been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts among other funding agencies.

Connor danced for eight years as a soloist with the Limón Dance Company. Presently on faculty at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), he has been on the faculties of The Juilliard School, New York University, and has been a guest teacher at many of the finest training centers in the world including The Place in London, the Rotterdamse Dansacademie, Jacob’s Pillow, Dresden’s Palucca Schule, the Joffrey Summer Workshop, The Dance Studio in Novosibirsk, Russia, and the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem.

From Colin Connor’s Artist Statement:
“My work is rooted in the mystery of how we live in our physical beings. It is an ongoing investigation of perception, both of dancers and audience, and based on how, in the end, all human experience is felt through the senses. With our lives increasingly mediated by various technologies, I believe that art which focuses attention back to the completeness of how we live in our bodies becomes ever more essential.”

As a choreographer, Connor inspires performances described as, “Earthy, a little rough and daring, sexy and totally spellbinding,” by Dance Magazine after 2010 performances at the Joyce Theater in New York.  Connor’s dance work has been called “a metaphor for human resilience,” by The Village Voice, and his choreography drew this response from Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times: “a relief these days to see movement treated as a sufficiently expressive medium.”

ARC (A Room to Create) Pasadena is a striking new venue located in one of Southern California’s most vibrant cultural centers. The mission of ARC Pasadena is to support and nurture an appreciation of dance by providing a state of the art facility for dancers, choreographers, teachers, lecturers, and dance enthusiasts. ARC Pasadena also serves as the headquarters for the Pennington Dance Group, a nonprofit organization that promotes dance through performances, education and outreach programs.  Entrance to ARC Pasadena is behind the facility as is  free parking.  Additional parking can be found on the adjacent streets.  The closest cross street is Michigan Avenue.  ARC Pasadena is a six-block walk from the Metro Gold Line-Lake Avenue stop.  For more information please visit www.arcpasadena.org and also http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pasadena-CA/ARC-Pasadena/135542179794545?ref=t.

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For more information, images, or to request interviews, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada (née Hasty) at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.