RAWdance’s CONCEPT series salon, an institution of the San Francisco dance scene, plants roots in the Hudson Valley this July. An intimate and informal salon of contemporary dance, the CONCEPT series serves high quality dance art with an informal, living room vibe, complete with popcorn. A pay-what-you-can event, the series is a welcoming antidote to the stuffiness that can surround concert dance.

Since its debut in 2007, the CONCEPT series has shared works by nearly 150 Bay Area dance artists to date. RAWdance expanded to two locations in 2019 and has been eagerly awaiting the right moment to bring the series to its Hudson Valley home, creating a new opportunity to see work by the area’s dynamic, professional dance makers. RAWdance’s Co-Artistic Directors (and High Falls residents) Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith act as hosts between performances, serving trays of goodies and a healthy dose of banter.

Taking place at the industrial-chic Senate Garage in Uptown Kingston, the CONCEPT series will highlight contemporary dance makers from the Hudson Valley region. Participating artists include Sarah Chien, who is coming off of an April performance at Gibney as part of the ∞therside collective; DOCKDANCE, the duo of Charlotte
Stickles and Maddie Leonard-Rose; dance theater artist Chris Black of New Paltz (a San Francisco transplant like RAWdance’s Co-Artistic Directors); dance artist Jillian Sweeney, and Sondra Loring, a pillar of the Hudson Valley arts community. RAWdance will also be showing new work in development.

For the series, choreographers are encouraged to share work at any point along the creative process, from reimagining repertory to testing out new work fresh from the studio. One of the pieces RAWdance will be sharing for this edition of the CONCEPT series is a new duet between Smith and dancer Yebel Gallegos, who is currently on faculty at Bard. The work-in-progress is a glimpse into a larger project that will premiere this fall, titled Loving Still, launched from photographs from the book Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s-1950s.

ABOUT RAWDANCE:
RAWdance is an award-winning contemporary dance company known for transforming theaters and public spaces through a mix of performance, curation, collaboration, and film. The company’s charged and nuanced works have been presented by the Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Dance St. Louis, ODC Theater, the Singapore Fringe, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, ‘62 Center for Theatre and Dance, and more throughout the U.S. and in Asia. RAWdance has presented works by almost 150 Bay Area artists through its CONCEPT series salon since 2007, and over 40 additional site-specific works through its curation of YBG ChoreoFest from 2017 to 2022. In 2019 the company expanded to two coasts, staying rooted in San Francisco while expanding to New York’s Hudson Valley.

More about the company and series at rawdance.org.

ESSENTIAL INFO:
Company: RAWdance
Artists: Sondra Loring, Sarah Chien, Jillian Sweeney, Chris Black, DOCKDANCE, and RAWdance.
Production: the CONCEPT series: Hudson Valley Edition
Times: 3:00pm & 7:30pm, Saturday, July 1
Venue: The Senate Garage
4 N. Front St., Kingston, NY 12401
Cost: Pay-What-You-Can ($10-$30 suggested)
Tickets: conceptHVeventbrite.com
Info: rawdance.org, raw@rawdance.org, 415-729-3959