The Collage Dance Collective, which describes itself as as “one of the largest Black-led performing arts organizations in the South and one of a few professional ballet companies in the world with a roster of Black and Indigenous People of Color,” will perform Wednesday, Oct. 19, in Mobile. (Ariel J. Cobbert photo courtesy of Collage Dance Collective)Ariel J. Cobbert/Collage
Lawrence Specker, of Alabama.com, highlights Collage Dance Collective’s performance in Mobile, Alabama.
October 17, 2022
A dance performance coming to Mobile this week will provide what one organizer thinks will be an inspirational demonstration of the ways artistic dance can transcend expectations.
Collage Dance Collective, a Memphis-based organization, will perform at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, in the Mobile Civic Center Theater. The troupe’s visit to Mobile, which includes a lecture, demonstration and master class for area schoolchildren, is presented by the DREAM Foundation, a philanthropic sister organization to the Mobile alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
Jerryln London of DREAM said the event is the third in a series, partly funded by grants from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Alabama State Council on the Arts. She and her husband – Excelsior Band leader Hosea London – made a trip to Little Rock to see Collage in action, and she said she came away wanting to share the troupe’s work with Mobile-area students and dance enthusiasts.
“It was just a different take,” she said of the performance, which drew on the music of artists such as Roberta Flack and Donnie Hathaway.
“I had never seen a ballet to that type of music before,” she said. “But the finale, all the last three songs were blues. There was Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘I’m a Man,’ then Koko Taylor’s ‘Wang Dang Doodle,’ and the end was to ‘The Thrill is Gone’ by B.B. King. I had never envisioned a ballet done to the blues. It was phenomenal.”
Collage describes itself as “one of the largest Black-led performing arts organization in the South and one of a few professional ballet companies in the world with a roster of Black and Indigenous People of Color.”
Its roster “includes a diverse range of classical and contemporary choreography,” the group says, and it works “to inspire the growth of ballet by showcasing a repertoire of relevant choreography and world-class dance representative of our community.”
According to promotional materials, the Mobile show will feature works including “Bluff City Blues” by Amy Hall Garner, “A Time For” by Princess Grace Award winner Joshua Manculich and “Gnawa” by acclaimed Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato.
London said this week’s student-oriented activities, and the public performance on Wednesday, are all about showing people the possibilities.
“That’s the biggest take,” she said. “It expanded my view of what ballet could be.”
“For the youth I hope they’ll learn there’s another way of nonverbal communication,” she said. “I would love for them to learn that you don’t have to resort to violence to express yourself. You can use dance, all art forms, to express sadness, anger, happiness. And I think they’ll see that in the lecture-demonstration...Also I want them to know that there are careers and collegiate opportunities [in dance].”
Wednesday’s performance starts at 7 p.m. General admission tickets are $40, available through Ticketmaster. For more information on the Collage Dance Collective, visit collagedance.org. For more on the DREAM foundation, visit www.dreamfoundationmobileal.org.