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Dance 29 Features Guest Choreographer Avi Kaiser

Posted February 25, 2003

HOLLAND -- International choreographer Avi Kaiser will bring his artistic talent to Holland as guest choreographer for the Hope College-sponsored Dance 29 concert.

This year's concert will run Thursday-Saturday, March 6-8, in the main theatre of the DeWitt Center, located on Columbia Avenue at 12th Street. Curtain time will be at 8 p.m. for all performances.

Avi Kaiser is an internationally influential and successful choreographer in the art of dance theater. He trained and performed with the world-renowned Bat-Sheva Dance Company in Israel before coming to Europe to found Blue Ran Dances.

He has worked with many leading European dance companies, including Suzanne Linke and Dancers, Carolyn Carlson and Cie, Wim Vandekeybus and Ultima Vez, and Jean Claude Gallotta. He has produced major international touring works for many companies, and his choreography has been produced at the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Theatre de la Ville (Paris), Hebbel Theatre (Berlin), Brooklyn Academy of Dance (New York City), Suzanne Dellal Center (Tel Aviv), la Scala (Milan), and various other major dance venues. Kaiser is a respected guest teacher and regularly accepts invitations at major dance institutions, workshops, and "stages."

His international full-length dance productions include "Le Coq Est Mort," "Humus," "In the Body," "Lieber R," "Cri-Ah," "Le Depart De Marsaille," "Short Stories," and many others.

Kaiser is the founder and director of "The Roof" Tanzraum, a creative/performance space for international artists in Duisburg, Germany, which opened to the public in January of 2003. His current projects include choreographing in Austria and preparing for a new production in Paris. He is also touring with "Piazza Figure 2," a piece co-choreographed and performed with Sergio Antonino, who assisted with the creation of Kaiser's work for Dance 29, "Not All Islands are Surrounded by Water."

Hope dancers to be featured in Kaiser's piece for Dance 29 include junior Kathleen Davenport of Gainesville, Fla.; senior Noelle Davids of Big Rapids; junior Dawn Flandermeyer of Saint Charles, Mo.; junior Colette Harris of Chicago, Ill.; and senior Bethany White of Evansville, Ind.

"Working with Avi was one of the most exciting experiences I have had at Hope," White said. "His insight on dance and his approach to choreography was something completely new to me and I found the process not only educational, but it opened up a whole new dance world for me."

"His piece not only will enrich the concert but will also add the extra element of dance theater that will showcase the diversity of the dance department," she said. "Avi is a well-known and respected choreographer in Europe and I am excited to see he is receiving the credit he deserves in the United States and in Holland, Michigan."

Junior Colette Harris reflected that, "working with Avi was unlike anything else I have ever experienced since I began dancing 16 years ago. The whole process of creating the piece was like taking an incredible journey, where everything was fresh and interesting and with each new step there was a learning process."

Tickets for Dance 29 are available from the theatre lobby ticket office located in DeWitt Center, and cost $7 for regular adult admission and $5 for senior citizens, students and members of Hope College faculty and staff. The ticket office is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., and on Saturday from noon until 5 p.m., as well as until 8 p.m. on performance nights, and can be reached at (616) 395-7890.

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