Fierce Dayton Contemporary Dance to close Akron's Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival
Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) enjoys performing in Akron's Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival so much, the internationally renowned troupe is performing in the beloved festival for the fourth time this weekend.
DCDC will close the three-week festival, held each summer in Akron's parks, with performances Friday and Saturday night. It's a special time for the company, which will kick off its 55 season with the Akron festival.
More: Dance returns to Akron parks with Poll festival, starting July 28: Here's what to know
The dance festival sponsored by the city of Akron offers free outdoor dance performances each year featuring local and out-of-town companies. Performances on outdoor stages curated just for dance, such as the Poll festival's movable stage, are one of DCDC Artistic Director Debbie Blunden-Diggs' favorite things.
"I really have a passion for performing outdoors. I think there's something about watching dance outdoors that feels very magical, almost heavenly," said Blunden-Diggs', whose company has performed outdoors everywhere from Akron to New York's Central Park and Lincoln Center. "Places that are designed to showcase dance outdoors are really special."
What's on the Akron program
Kicking off the program this weekend will be DCDC dancer and choreographer Elizabeth Ramsey's "Deep/End." The emotional dance reflects upon isolation of the pandemic's stay-at-home orders and the strength of creativity to overcome such a dark period.
"I think a lot of art that was produced coming out of the pandemic speaks to people's isolation and loss and grief and torment. For the past two years, dance programming has been pretty dark because art imitates life," Blunden-Diggs said.
That darkness will be balanced with William B. McClellan Jr.'s "The Story Unfolds," which features an emotionally driven quartet of four women and speaks of love and relationships.
Next, Akron audiences will take in the world premiere of "Moments of Indecision," a duet by Dayton Contemporary Dance 2 director Shonna Hickman-Matlock that illustrates the constant give and take in a couple's relationship.
Finally, the company will reprise Blunden-Diggs' "Traffic," which it last performed for the Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival in 2009. In creating the dance, traffic patterns on the street inspired her to think about how people merge and intersect and how energy shifts when people are in a hurry.
At the end of the dance, the 14-member company moves as one, accenting drum beats.
"We do a lot of big works, a lot of works that require the ensemble to move all together simultaneously," Blunden-Diggs said. "The power of DCD is watching this eclectic mix of bodies do ensemble work with the fierceness that we do it."
More: 'Encounter: Akron,' made for city's people, reaches beyond assumptions about what dance is
Dayton Contemporary Dance's mission
DCDC, a predominantly African-American dance company, is rooted in the Black perspective.
"It is rooted in the African-American experience. We were founded by an African-American woman (Blunden-Diggs' mother, the late Jeraldyne Blunden). A lot of our content speaks to the African diaspora," Blunden-Diggs said.
Amid the DCDC company is 2022 Kent State University dance and sociology graduate Niarra Gooden-Clarke, of Toronto, Ontario.
DCDC legacy
Blunden-Diggs, who began dancing with her mother's company when she was 12, performed with DCDC for more than 20 years. She's been with the company since 1972.
"I fell like I'm a part of the legacy my mother founded here in 1968," said Blunden-Diggs, who has performed most of the company's repertoire, choreographed numerous dances for the company and served for decades on its artistic staff. "It has allowed me to grow in all the capacities as a creator, as a leader, as a director, as a curator."
As part of that legacy, she's proud to announce that this season, DCDC will be the first African-American dance company to perform Paul Taylor's famed work "Esplanade."
Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival
On stage: Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
When: 8:45 p.m. Friday-Saturday
Where: Goodyear Heights Metro Park, 2077 Newton St., Akron
Cost: Free
Pre-show: Dance Institute and ArtsSparks students interactive program for children
Information: akrondancefestival.org
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Dayton Contemporary Dance to close Akron's Heinz Poll festival in parks
