Cover Story: The Dancer

Blake Beckham

By Thomas Bell Wednesday September 6, 2006 12:04 AM EDT

Name: Blake Beckham

Age: 27

Work: Independent contemporary dancer and choreographer, and a development associate with Moving in the Spirit, an award-winning, nonprofit youth development program that teaches dance and life skills to Atlanta children and young adults. Beckham is a co-founder of and ongoing collaborator in the Nerve Series, the annual Atlanta dance festival for experimental movement. In 2005, Beckham toured across Poland with the Joe Alter Dance Group.

Education: One of the first graduates of Emory University’s dance major program; MFA in choreography from Ohio State University.

Prophecy: Beckham will perform in Gardenhouse Dance’s RAWReworked and Rearrangements on Sept. 8-9, 15-16 at the Beam (www.gardenhousedance.org). Beckham will premiere her own latest work, Scar/ed, Nov. 4 at Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery. The piece examines the relationship between the interior and exterior of the body, with the boundary of the skin blurred by anatomically accurate depictions of her organs, drawn on her skin. Stories of scars and repairs consider the breaking of the divide between what is veiled and exposed. One of the finest dancers Atlanta has produced in recent memory, Beckham’s also becoming one hell of a choreographer. We predict the wheel of fortune will turn favorably for this high priestess.

www.blakebeckhamdancing.blogspot.com.

Image

??





Departments