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Choreography & Performance: Elizabeth Lentz-Hill

Which Came First? (From Dominion, 2015)

Artistic Director Cheryl Flaharty

Dancers: Nathaniel Whittaker and Azure Ng

Kawaipunahele

Dancers: Tau Y2: Kendra Arakaki, Beatrice Gibbon, Daryllyn Jaralba, Caleigh-Ruth Nakata, Atanuamai’ālia Seno

Choreography: Peter Rockford Espiritu

Music: Keali’i Reichel

Palehua

Dancers: Alaina Cota, Devon Izumigawa, Francesca Linden, Alex Miller, Jessica Pereira, Alaana Seno

Choreography: Marie Takazawa; Peter Rockford Espiritu

Hula Choreography: Frank Akima, Alaana Seno

Music: Amy Hanaiali'i Gilliom, William `Awihilima Kahaiali`i

Many Moons

Dancers: Tina Chan, Cy Higashi, Lance Sabado, Terry Slaughter, and Katelyn Wyatt

Choreography by: Kara Jhalak Miller

Music Composer and Performer: Brianna Tam

From the Album: Growth

Jhalak Dance Company's dynamic choreography "Many Moons" focuses on the energy, vitality, and rhythm of the moon cycles. This sublime body influences our beautiful ocean tides and fresh water pools. The gravitational pull of the moon and the earth creates a tidal force that is reflected in the choreographic canon of the dance.

As a live performing art, dance is truly ephemeral. It continues to live on beyond the moment of presentation in the memories of those who have experienced it. Dance is an artistic expression in which aesthetics and body movement are the medium. A live performance is never repeated exactly the same twice due to the relationship of the dancers and the audience, and it changes even more when the same choreographic presentation or improvisation movement score is put into different locations because of the environment. At the invitation of HiSAM, the version of "Many Moons" presented at the "Honolulu Dance Collection" is a new iteration of the work that connects to Shigeru Narikawa's painting "Moon" in the Arts in Public Places Collection as a reflection of framing the ebb and flow of the body's vital life force in continuous motion.

There were Walls Between

Dancers: June Chee, Devon Izumigawa, Elisabeth Kurashige Mather

Choreography by: Elisabeth Kurashige Mather

Music: Boom Forest and Phox

There Were Walls Between Us explores the repercussions of how we choose to use our voices—both as individuals and as a community—and how these choices affect the space that we find ourselves in. It’s a reflection on how at the end of the day, that esoteric concept of Change that we advocate for or stay silent on has a profound impact on the simple and prosaic aspects of each of our lives. The work was created for Hawaii State Art Museum’s Ewa Gallery to emphasize the spatial divisions within the larger space and echo the boundaries we create in our own lives. The nature of the gallery’s architecture visually highlighted the dancers choices in relation to one another and the space giving a sense of both togetherness and separation.

The Rose Adagio Revival

Dancers: Kelsey Kominek, Tess Hetherington, Jaycee Fagundes, Aiyana Ano, Kiae Kotas, Emma Lukuy Li, Rosabella Mediati

Choreography by: Carolyn Feher

Music: The Rose Adagio by Peter Tchaikovsky

Marius Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty premiered in 1890, and with it came one of the most famous and challenging pieces of classical choreography to this day: The six-minute Rose Adagio with its gravity-defying balances.

The original story features Aurora dancing with four suitors attempting to win her hand in marriage at her 16th birthday party– a plot point that feels more and more outdated as we progress further into the 21st century. Is it possible to maintain the integrity of this historic and beautiful choreography, while removing certain elements from the storyline that arguably don’t belong anymore in the modern world? KDA would like to think so. Gone are the princes dancing with teenagers, and instead, we

present to you a piece about girls supporting each other. Holding each other up and working together to rise above what you could have accomplished alone. Because that’s what ballet today has become, and it is all the more beautiful for it.

Gardenia

Hurricane

Dancers: Tsuyuno Amos, Cy Higashi, Maureen Kearns, Katelyn Wyatt,

Choreography by: Terry Slaughter

Music: Solo? Repeat!

Written and performed by Anne Müller

Published by Erased Tapes Music

Courtesy of Erased Tapes Records

Hurricane was inspired largely by the image titled, The Flight, which comes from the Art in Public Spaces collection. As a dancer, Terry Slaughter has an affinity for spiraling, circular movements, this in connection with the Flight gave visions of Hurricane force winds blowing about the land. Dancers move throughout the space, alternating between being the mighty hurricane winds and falling prey to its power.

Lei Connection

Inspired by Lei Sellers art by Shirley Ximena Hopper Russell, this dance debut weaves traditional hula and bachata sensual together with fragrant flower leis. Rainbow Fusion Dance director Rainbow Chen is happy to share aloha and honor her fellow Stanford alumnae 90 years prior!

Dancers: Rainbow Chen, Kanoelehua Healy, Naomi Oshimo and Tere Suki

Choreography by: Rainbow Chen with Kanoelehua Healy and Tere Suki

Music: He Aloha No O Honolulu by Teresa Bright

This mele composed by Lot Kauwē tells of his return home from Honolulu to Kona, aboard the inter-island steamer, Maunaloa. It is one of his best-known compositions which is rich in kaona (metaphor) detailing his romantic adventures along the way. The rain, shady groves, lighthouse, harbor, winds and seas refer to much more, oh lala!

Somewhere We Find Ourselves

Dancers: Elisabeth Kurashige Mather, June Chee, Joy Agner

Choreography by: Jennifer Shannon Butler

Music: Cosmo Sheldrake, Martin Phipps

“Somewhere We Find Ourselves” is a dream-like and shadowy sequence that takes a peak into a surreal moment in a timeless moment. Time evasive- the dancers holding a lantern to light the shadowy places that reflects the convergence of personal and external experiences in our dreams. This piece resonates with the sculpture garden and reflection pool at the HISAM. An open- ended moment of time that embodies past, present, and future and invites viewers to take their own reflective journey where past, present, and future are seamless.

Part 1

In many traditions the spiritual or mystic longing is compared to the longing of a lover. In the pieces by Satoru Abe in the sculpture garden we can at times see a long path, a journey, and at times we can see that the circular, cyclical, swirling energy of birth and rebirth already surround and interpenetrate the central subject. The viewer looks through Satoru Abe's wrought art to see the negative space where a swimming pool once was--air replacing water, the negative space of the swimming pool becoming the negative space in the sculptures. This semi-improvisational piece pairs these feelings of air and water with the song "En el Aire," literally, "in the air" expressing an exploration of these feelings of swirling desire, existence, reality and unreality.

Dancers: Mic Lee, Kimberly Loo

Improvisation by: Mic Lee, Kimberly Loo

Music: “En El Aire” by Vega Almohalla

Part 2

Choreography by: Marck Silva & Melyssa Tamada

Music: “Designer” David Jay, FlavaOne, Tyro

Dancers:

Frederick Mariano, Jeddie Kawahatsu, Joseph Peach Graves, Joshua Javier, Joy Yu Nourrie, Karen-Marie Amper, Kimberlin Patton

Kimberly Loo, Leilani Motet, Mahina Hong, Mic Lee, Naomi Fujimoto

Niccolo Gruta, Rika Torres

Llanto de Crocodilo

Dancers: Cory Arashiro and Andrea Carolyn

Directed and choreographed by: Stefan Kant

Music: “Llanto de Crocodilo” by Ray Barretto

“Llanto de Crocodilo” - a fast and fun piece, showcasing NY-style salsa on2. Salsa on2 connects more deeply with the music’s instruments, and this choreography challenges you to listen to the music and hear how we bring to life the various instruments in our footwork and hand and body styling.

Prayers and Yong/Zhu

Dancers: Marnita Billup, Chloe Groom, Maureen Kearns, Linda Kuo, Amari Kuo-Fletcher, Nicole Maileen Woo

Choreography by: Linda Kuo & Dancers

Music: Axis by Outsource; Near Light by Ólafur Arnalds

Presenting excerpts of the upcoming premiere, Edible Tales, Dancers Unlimited performs “Prayers” and “Yong/Zhu”.

Prayers investigates how we connect with our ancestors through food offerings and workship. The work is co-created by our dancers, each bringing to the piece her/their spiritual practice and offering.

Inspired by part of her parents’ Chinese names: yong 勇(bravery) and zhu 竹(bamboo), the choreographer Linda Kuo created this piece as a duet with her 6-year-old, honoring the legacies of her parents and the values they instilled in her to live and love with the strength and tenacity of the bamboo. The kāʻekeʻeke or Hawaiian bamboo drums are traditionally used in Hula. For this contemporary performance, Kuo uses the bamboos gifted by Uncle Calvin Hoe, a Native Hawaiian master instrument maker.