Ephrat Asherie Dance: ‘Odeon’

Ephrat Asherie Dance (EAD) is a dance company rooted in African American
and Latinx street and club dances. Dedicated to exploring the inherent
complexities of these forms, EAD investigates the expansive narrative
qualities of various social dances, including breaking, hip-hop, house and
vogue, as a means to tell stories, develop innovative imagery and find new
modes of expression. EAD’s first evening-length work, A Single Ride, earned
two Bessie nominations in 2013 for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer and
Outstanding Sound Design by Marty Beller. The company has presented work at
The Apollo Theater; the Celebrity Series of Boston; Columbia (Mo.) College;
New York City’s Dixon Place; Fira Tàrrega, Spain; Works & Process at
the Guggenheim, New York; Jacob’s Pillow dance festival, Becket, Mass.; the
Joyce Theater, New York; La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, New York; the
River to River Festival, New York; Mass MoCA, North Adams, Mass.; New York
Live Arts; SummerStage in Central Park, and The Yard, Chilmark, Mass.,
among others.
Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie is a New York City-based b-girl, dancer and
choreographer and a 2016 Bessie Award Winner for Innovative Achievement in
Dance. She has received numerous awards to support her work including Dance
Magazine’s inaugural Harkness Promise Award, the Jacob’s Pillow Fellowship
at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at LIU and a Jerome Foundation
Travel and Study Grant. Last year, Asherie received a National Dance
Project award to support the development and touring of her newest work,
Odeon.
Odeon, an original dance work for six dancers and four musicians, is the
second collaboration between sister and brother team Ephrat and Ehud
Asherie (choreographer and musical director, respectively). Set to the
music of fin-de-siècle Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth, known for
mixing early 20th-century romantic music with samba and other popular
Afro-Brazilian rhythms, this work takes a hybrid approach to movement.
Odeon delves into what happens when you bring together parts of the
extended family of street and club dances — breaking, hip-hop, house and
vogue — and remix them and challenge them to inhabit unfamiliar spatial and
choreographic contexts.
Adults: $25 | Seniors 62+: $20 | Youth 18 and under: $15