SYNOPSIS OF THE PROJECT:
The tearing of something, like a piece of paper, is simple. A closer look at the fine fibers along the tear reveals it is anything but simple. If the fraying threads are not paper, but muscle, the complexity compounds. A tear in the sense of self alters how a person sees themselves and their world. Tearing occurs by accident or with intent. This is true in the body, the psyche, a relationship, society, a government, or a favorite pair of pants. What follows the division are discoveries of how to mend, strengthen, re-imagine, or redirect. While tearing can occur by accident, the decisions around mending are full of intent, exploration, and trial and error. Mending can result in stronger bonds, and the decision to leave things torn can allow for deeper healing and resilience. When bodies, identities, stories, and human interactions are added to these processes, the results are familiar to all while simultaneously reflecting deeply personal experiences. 

Evolving Doors Dance explores these concepts in a new collaborative project. Simmons, as Artistic Director, creates choreography in collaboration with musician, Amy Shelley, who composes an original score for the work. Denver playwright, Steph Holmbo, both scripts text and coaches performers in acting. While not serving as a narrative, the text mimics and informs the physical interplay of the choreography, enriches the soundscape, and provides a contextual playground for both performers and audience. The cast of five dancers, three actors, and two musicians are all actively and explicitly part of the process and performances, weaving their diverse lived experiences into the work through movement, text, interaction, sound, live music, physical contact, and spatial relationships. This intimate exploration dives deeply into the concepts, experiences, and stories of tearing and mending on intersectional layers ranging from the intrapersonal to interpersonal, the community to institutional and global. Through this collaboration, the artists and performers stretch outside the familiarity of their more comfortable media and, in turn, engage with audiences to question how tearing apart and rebuilding occurs in real time. The artists spend the next several months creating masterclasses and an original, evening-length performance work, premiering at The Studio Loft in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) on March 1st and 2nd, 2019. 

HOW YOUR FUNDING HELPS!:
The company and artists are seeking project funding through grants and local fundraisers, but funds gained through this crowdsourcing campaign provide funding for the following:
- Dancer and artist stipends
-Theatre rental and Union labor costs required by the venue
- Equipment rental (dance floor and lighting equipment)
- Costuming and lighting design 


COMPANY BIO
Evolving Doors Dance was founded in 2006 and is a contemporary modern dance company based in Denver, Colorado.  The company has premiered seven evening length works and countless individual pieces.  Performances have been presented in Colorado, New York, Mississippi, Tennessee, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Wyoming, and Missouri and has received grant funding from various Colorado arts organizations, including a Boulder County Arts Alliance Neodata Fellowship, given for a body of work.  In addition, directors Simmons and Shelley have been commissioned as guest artists by Iowa State University and Middle Tennessee State University.  Evolving Doors Dance cultivates, collaborates, builds community, educates, and performs while nurturing the art of dance and movement and its place in our world.  As EDD’s work paints pictures only bodies and spacial relationships can conjure, it uses dance as a medium to bring human and social awareness to its audience and its community--both locally and nationally.  The company presents dance woven with political impressions, born from visions of equality, and filled with unmistakably universal human connections and themes that cross lines of sex, gender, ethnicity, and class.  From the interaction of an intimate duet to echoes of the call for equal rights, performances seek to evoke, engage, and evolve.  Dances often spark engagement in ways that create questions, uncover fears, investigate relationships, question behaviors and promote self-examination.  

CREATIVES:
Angie Simmons, Choreography
Amy Shelley, Music/Sound Composition
Steph Holmbo, Script

DANCERS:
Serena Chopra
Arielle Dykstra
Meg Gibbs
Sheila Klein 
Angie Simmons

Check out our company website to learn more about our history, dancers, classes, and projects!
http://evolvingdoorsdance.org/Evolving_Doors_Dance_Official_Website/Home.html

Video filmed by Tara Oldfield and Jason DeRose, edited by Amy Shelley.  Video music by High Fiction.