Through support from South Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mississippi Arts Commission, the BPAC will present the dance company River North Dance Chicago in 2016.The Bologna Performing Arts Center was recently informed of its selection to participate in the Dance Touring Initiative funded by South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
“The BPAC is please to share that it has received another grant from South Arts, in partnership with the NEA and the Mississippi Arts Commission — a regional touring block-booking grant to present the dance company River North Dance Chicago,” said Laura Howell, BPAC executive director.
The grant supports a multi-day residency which will include two performances, a master class, movement workshop and a post performance discussion. The BPAC is one of four arts organizations that worked together to create a tour of the dance company. Other locations on the tour include Memphis, Somerset, Ky. and Gainesville, Fla.
The first performance by the company will be March 1, 2016 at 11 a.m. for grades 5-12. The program, titled “Street Beat: Dance Through the Decades,” teaches students about the historical and social conditions of the 20th Century and how they influenced dance, focusing on the decades of the 1920s-1990s.
Later that evening at 7:30 p.m., the company will present a public performance featuring a passionate and athletic mixed contemporary program of its current repertoire. The company is led by artistic director Frank Chaves, who aims for audiences to feel the complete spectrum of human emotions in a single evening. Both performances are part of the BPAC’s 2015-16 season.
South Arts was founded in 1975 to build on the South’s unique heritage and enhance the public value of the arts. It works in partnership with each of its nine state art agencies, and is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The BPAC was built in 1994 at Delta State University and is now in its 21st season of presenting the performing arts in the Mississippi Delta. For more information, visit www.bolognapac.com.
