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A Ludwig Dance Theatre
Glass Blocks/Steel bars

Tempe Center for the Arts
700 W. Rio Salado Parkway, Tempe

March 6,7,8,@ 7:30;
March 9 @ 2
Tickets: www.tempe.gov/TCA or 480-350-2822
Info: www.aludwigdance.org or 480-966-3391
General: $20; Senior: $18; Student: $15

PostCard

A Ludwig Dance Theatre opens their premiere concert at the new and glamorous Studio in the Tempe Center for the Arts at Tempe Town Lake, March 6-9.  A Ludwig Dance Theatre is Arizona's longest existing contemporary dance company, formed in CA, 1977, and moved to AZ in 1979,  and has been an active and anticipated component of the arts performance scene ever since.

Known for collaborations with many arts organizations and artists in the Valley as well as for a sense of provocative probing of current issues, this concert is no exception.

Glass Blocks/Steel Bars, concert title, is the name of the new and largest project. Choreographer Ludwig was caught by a conversation shared with Board member and attorney Laurie Herman.  Herman provides counsel for people arrested on any of a number of offenses for 60 seconds before that person sees a judge and enters the hopefully appropriate plea.   Videographers Tom Eldridge and Nancy Happel and writer Roberta Burnett are part of the creative mix joining the dancers in exploring the sensibilities of those occurrences.

And what is a big band sound without a big band.  Twenty members of the Arizona Wind Symphony continue their partnership with A Ludwig Dance Theatre in Band Stand, a collection of tunes from the early big band era, recapturing the fun and the rhythms of years past. Guest Len Gordon, Dean of the Emeritus College at ASU joins company dancer and emeritus professor Beth Lessard for a special swing number section among the Company dancers.

Also on the concert, Comfort Zone, a duet created in 1998 and featuring Jia Wu, one of the performers ten years ago and Frances Goritsas in an interweaving of the commonalities of Martha Stewart, the Comfort Women from WWII,  and jelly fish.

Finally, family ties give a glimpse of a kind of absurd reality in the form of The Erickson Sisters, one of whom is Ludwig's grandmother, long since deceased.  Special guests joining Ludwig and Lessard include Valley dance diva Frances Cohen, Director of Center Dance,  and Sally Jesse, chair of Dance at Chandler Gilbert Community College.

Joining Wu and Goritsas, company dancers include Aroldo Fernandes, Nancy Langsner, Lauren Jewell and Yeong Wen Li.  For additional information go to www.aludwigdance.org or call 480-966-3391.

Support for this series includes the  City of Tempe, Arizona Commission on the Arts,  National Endowment  for the Arts and The Emeritus College of ASU.