Dance - Small space, big Spirit
Moving in the Spirit packs ‘em in for spring show
The Beam theater just doesn’t seem big enough for Moving in the Spirit. The tiny black box space in Grant Park seats only 60, but Moving in the Spirit will somehow squeeze in more than 40 performers for its annual spring show this weekend.
Dana Phelps Marschalk, artistic director of the inner-city youth dance group, decided to name this year’s concert Under the Sun to reflect its dramatically diverse assortment of dance styles and programming.
“We put on a show like this every year so that people in the community can see the span of what we do,” Marschalk says. “The show goes in a big circle, like the sun.” It begins and ends with the troupe’s youngest participants, the Junior Company, with performances in between by dancers age 6 to fiftysomething, she says.
The 11 pieces included in Under the Sun vary from “Wade in the Water,” a reflection on the Civil Rights movement, to “Pregnant Pause,” which blends Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night” with a rap finale. Marschalk also premieres “Velvet Boxes,” a very personal dance that traces her own family’s struggles with racial tolerance. The choreographer says the piece leaves room for interpretation, but she hopes it helps to begin discussion of Atlanta’s racial issues.
“It’s about getting people to open up and just start a dialogue about what goes on. This city is so racially divided still. At Moving in the Spirit, we just desire to bring people together and to embrace differences, and to celebrate them,” she says.
That mission emerges in the nonprofit’s long-term goals. Because the Beam quickly sells out for almost every show, Moving in the Spirit’s board members envision building a theater in the next few years. Marschalk dreams of a new dance space where “people will come together and cross boundaries, and then start to play,” she says.
Moving in the Spirit’s Under the Sun will be performed March 22-23 at 8 p.m. and March 24 at 3 p.m. $10, $8 for artists, students, and senior citizens. The Beam, 750 Glenwood Ave., Grant Park. 404-624-5295.??