Ballet Prepares to Rock Boone in STAR DUST: From Bach to David Bowie

Complexions Contemporary Ballet Prepares to Rock Boone in STAR DUST: From Bach to David Bowie

The Schaefer Center Presents series welcomes the acclaimed rock ballet to the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts on October 6 at 7pm.

BOONE, NC — The Schaefer Center Presents (SCP) series, presented by Appalachian State University’s Office of Arts and Cultural Programs, welcomes Complexions Contemporary Ballet in STAR DUST: From Bach to David Bowie, Oct. 6 at 7pm at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. Company founders Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, armed with a rich Alvin Ailey lineage and a cadre of 18 spectacular dancers, have re-envisioned ballet through technical precision, athletic prowess, and sheer passion. Their newest work — a tribute to two iconic artists who each ruled his own musical hemisphere — has rocked the dance world. “This was simply one of the most exciting performances I’ve seen on the dance series, less a rock ballet than a rock concert…” (The Washington Post). For tickets and information, visit TheSchaeferCenter.org or contact the Box Office at 828.262.4046.

STAR DUST: From Bach to David Bowie showcases two exhilarating dance pieces inspired by musical masters. “Hissy Fits” is a sparse, intense piece set to timeless compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. Fusing contemporary dance with classical and street dance techniques, the work is an exploration of love, joy and frustration, all the complicated human feelings. “Star Dust,” dedicated to the groundbreaking David Bowie, comprises the evening’s second half, and features many of the late pop-rock star’s seminal hits, including “Space Oddity,” “Life on Mars,” “1984,” “Heroes,” and “Let’s Dance.” A theatrical dance extravaganza with glam rock-inspired costumes and red-and-blue painted Ziggy Stardust faces on all the dancers, “Star Dust” has been called a “love letter” to Bowie by Billboard, bold and “utterly transfixing.”

About Complexions

Combining intriguing choreography with stunning athleticism, Complexions is “a matchless American dance company” (Philadelphia Inquirer). Featured on the hit TV show So You Think You Can Dance, Complexions revitalizes the art of movement through a groundbreaking mix of styles, seamlessly fusing ballet, contemporary, jazz, and hip-hop.

The company was co-founded in 1994 by choreographer Dwight Rhoden and dancer Desmond Richardson with a singular approach to reinventing dance through a groundbreaking mix of methods, styles, and cultures. Rhoden, founding artistic director and principal choreographer of Complexions, earned the distinction of “one of the most sought out choreographers of the day” from The New York Times, and has danced in prestigious ballets and contemporary companies around the world. Richardson, a Tony Award nominee in 1999 as a member of the original cast of Fosse, was the first black American principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre. The New York Times named him as one of the greatest dancers of his time.

Today, Complexions represents one of the most recognized, diverse, inclusive and respected performing arts brands in the world. The company’s foremost innovation is that dance should be about removing boundaries, not reinforcing them. Whether it be the limiting traditions of a single style, period, venue, or culture, Complexions transcends them all, creating an open, continually evolving form of dance that reflects the movement of our world—and all its constituent cultures—as an interrelated whole.

Tickets: $25 Adults, $20 App State Faculty/Staff, $10 Students
Tickets are available to purchase at theschaefercenter.org, in person at the Schaefer Center box office (733 Rivers Street), or by calling 828-262-4046.

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COMING SOON…

All performances at 7pm at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts

Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy: A Celtic Family Christmas

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022

“Nothing short of jaw dropping … There are performances here that will raise you up and performances that will leave you misty-eyed.” —The Guardian

Mavis Staples

Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023

“[She] provides the comfort of a higher power.” —People

LA Theatre Works — Lucy Loves Desi: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

This behind-the-scenes true story of TV’s iconic sitcom brings as much heart and humor to the stage as an episode of I Love Lucy itself.

KODO (Tsuzumi)

Thursday, March 23, 2023

“Superlatives don’t really exist to convey the primal power and bravura beauty of Kodo. … Throughout, the devil of it is the combination of the discipline of a surgeon’s scalpel with the primitive, muscular endurance of a cavalry charge. The speed and dexterity are as impressive as the physical tenacity is breathtaking.” —Chicago Tribune

Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer with Rakesh Chaurasia

Saturday, April 22, 2023

There’s a bit of the sorcerer in Béla Fleck (banjo), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Edgar Meyer (double bass), and their special guest Rakesh Chaurasia (bansuri – Indian flute). It’s music that transcends description — ineffable, indefinable, and very beautiful.

Tickets

Discounts are offered for students for all shows as well as for App State faculty/staff and locals of Watauga, Ashe, and Avery counties for select shows. Purchase in person at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts, call 828-262-4046, or visit theschaefercenter.org/schaefer-center-presents/.

About “The Schaefer Center Presents”

“The Schaefer Center Presents” is a performing arts series offering campus and community audiences a diverse array of music, dance and theatre programming designed to enrich the cultural landscape of the Appalachian State University campus and surrounding area. By creating memorable performance experiences and related educational and outreach activities, the series promotes the power and excitement of the live performance experience; provides a “window on the world” through the artistry of nationally and internationally renowned artists; and showcases some of the finest artists of our nation and our region. Musical events range from symphony orchestra and chamber music performances to jazz, folk, traditional, international, and popular artists. Theatre productions run the gamut from serious drama to musical comedy. Dance performances offer an equally wide array of styles, from ballet to modern dance to international companies representing cultural traditions from around the world.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Explore Boone, University Bookstore, Hampton Inn & Suites, Courtyard by Marriott, Our State Magazine, High Country Radio (WZJS and WATA), WDAV 89.9 FM, WFDD 88.5FM, WKSK The Farm, and WASU 90.

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THE SCHAEFER CENTER PRESENTS… CO-SPONSORED EVENTS

The Schaefer Center Presents series is proud to support our university partners by co-sponsoring three series across campus that are vital to the cultural life of the university. Visit TheSchaeferCenter.org/schaefer-center-presents-cosponsored-events/.

Events are FREE
Plemmons Student Union, Appalachian State University

Visiting Writers Series

·         Savannah Sipple, Sept. 22 at 6pm
Poet Savannah Sipple is the author of WWJD & Other Poems, which was included on the American Library Association’s Over the Rainbow Recommended LGBTQ Reading List. It explores what it is to be a queer woman in Appalachia and is rooted in its culture and in her body.

• Neema Avashia, 29 at 6pm
• Memoirist’s Neema Avashia’s Another Appalachiaexamines both the roots and the resonance of the writer-educator’s identity as a queer desi Appalachian woman, while encouraging readers to envision more complex versions of both Appalachia and the nation as a whole. With lyric and narrative explorations of foodways, religion, sports, standards of beauty, social media, gun culture, and more, Another Appalachia mixes nostalgia and humor, sadness and sweetness, personal reflection and universal questions.
• Leigh Ann Henion, 13 at 6pm

Environmental writer and 2022 Rachel Rivers-Coffey Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing Leigh Ann Henion is the New York Times bestselling author of Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World. The book is about how she chased eclipses, migrations, and other natural phenomena around the globe to reawaken her sense of wonder.

University Forum Lecture Series

• Annette Gordon-Reed, Oct. 24 at 7pm

Juneteenth is America’s vital new holiday, commemorating the end of slavery. Annette Gordon-Reed, the first Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize for History and MacArthur Genius, is one of the integral voices who helped Juneteenth officially enter our national conversation. Her book about this profound day—On Juneteenth—is a powerful, essential work of history that weaves together America’s past with personal memoir; it was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, TIME, and NPR.