BREAKING GROUND 2018 Festival Comes To Tempe Center For The Arts

"Dance film selfies" filmed in exotic locales, performers in surreal animal masks, and riveting exhibitions from masters of movement, the Breaking Ground Contemporary Dance and Film Festival brings the nation's top artists to Arizona for its annual festival at Tempe Center for the Arts.

The Breaking Ground 2018 Festival will be held January 19 & 20 at 7:30 pm on the Main Stage at the Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway.
Advance tickets are $25 Adults/$18 Students and Seniors and $28Adults/$23 Students and Seniors when purchased at the door. Tickets are on sale now at tca.ticketforce.com or by calling 480-350-2822.

Following the performances, Breaking Ground 2018 will hold an after-party featuring the popular "tiny dances," in the lobby of the Tempe Center for the Arts. These short 5 minute pieces are performed on 4 x 4 ft elevated stages and will be performed by local contemporary dancers.

Breaking Ground 2018 Contemporary Dance & Film Festival
January 19 & 20, 2018 Tempe Center for the Arts
Each night is a different line up of performances. See below for schedule.

JAY CARLON- Southern California native JAY CARLON comes to Breaking Ground 2018 with his phenomenally entertaining film, Dance Film Selfie. CARLON began by filming himself with an iPhone in an empty Russian airport to combat boredom during an overnight layover. Soon after he began filming short improvised "selfie" dance films in public spaces all over the world - from Cartagena, Columbia and JFK Airport to Hearst Castle, West Hollywood and the Hoover Dam. The film, Dance Film Selfie, is a compilation of CARLON'S "dance selfies," and will be shown at Breaking Ground 2018, followed by a live, cameo appearance as he performs for the audience.

They talk and dance. They sing and dance. And sometimes, they just dance. LIZ CASEBOLT AND JOEL SMITH move between chatty and scripted conversation, with each other and the audience, playing with the gender and sexuality politics embedded in partnerships, and give hilarious comedic commentary on the sometimes overly serious traditions of modern dance.

Founder of TrickaNomeTry Dance Crew, an all-male hip-hop group, JULIO U. MEDINA comes to Tempe with an artistry firmly rooted in the hip-hop tradition. MEDINA's riveting performances blend theater, break dance and props to comment on men's vulnerability, masculinity and sexuality.

MEDINA is deeply invested in bringing arts to underserved communities. He has worked to pioneer a partnership between TrickaNomeTry and Men In Motion, a dance company of boy's ages 8-13 as well as volunteering with Dance2Serve (D2S), an emerging organization in South Los Angeles that is seeking to better individuals and community through dance. He is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Cal State University, Long Beach where he teaches modern and hip hop dance.

The innovative company from Los Angeles, TALES BETWEEN OUR LEGS comes to Breaking Ground with their magical, surreal universe, reminiscent of David Lynch and The Twilight Zone.

With mind-blowing costumes that blur the line between human and animal, the company performs amongst angular clouds with scenic projections to create an absurd, entertaining and thought provoking experience.

CARLEY CONDER Artistic Director of CONDER/dance is one of the strongest voices and advocates for contemporary dance in Arizona. The company has produced the annual Breaking Ground Festival since 2007 to support local and International Artists, and performs in venues around the Valley including the Herberger Theater, the Orpheum Theater, Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Mesa Arts Center, Phoenix Art Museum, Artel at the Clarendon Hotel, W Hotel and Tempe Center for the Arts.

CONDER is currently a Full-time faculty member for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at ASU and is on the Adjunct Faculty at Scottsdale Community College.
At the 2018 Breaking Ground Festival, CONDER/dance will unveil For The Record, CARLEY CONDER's newest ensemble work which explores sensations we feel when we are in unfamiliar, uncharted territory.

"In this day and age of constant change and upheaval, I wanted to explore how we interact in environments and relationships that we no longer understand..with a partner, with society, with a country," says CONDER. "The piece contains set and unscripted movement between 5 people, who must react instinctually when they don't know what is coming next." CONDER/dance company members include Jordan Daniels, Danielle Feinberg, Stephanie Lebedies, Joan Rodriguez and Taimy Miranda.

Choreographer MARY FITZGERALD premieres her stunning new film, Floating Chronologies at the 2018 Breaking Ground Festival.
Filmed in its entirety in the timeless, ancient landscape of the Painted Desert in Northern Arizona, Floating Chronologies is a commentary on aging, featuring three generations of women and examines the body's shift in strength, presence and vulnerability over time.

Inspired by a TED Talk where noted clinical psychologist, Hedy Schleifer, outlines three key elements for humans to successfully connect, Arizona dancers EMILY LAIRD AND LACEE GARCIA perform their new piece, Interface. Interface takes the psychologist's observations of "space", "bridge" and "encounter" to create a physical exploration of how human beings relate to one another.

Performance artist and choreographer JENNY GERENA examines the animal instincts of women in her new work, Sensing the Perimeter.
Joined by 5 powerful female dancers, who move as a pack of wolves, audiences will experience the primal connection between animals and the earth in this ground-breaking premiere.

Arizona dancer SARAH HAAS brings her moving performance reflecting on personal memories of her mother's death when she was just 12 years old. The piece, Wake, draws on multiple meanings of the word - from the traditional wake ceremony following her death, to the imperative "Wake Up!" in the intense desire for her mother to revive, to thoughts of an awakening as Haas becomes aware of the present moment.

This highly personal piece serves as a tribute to Sarah's mother as she "seeks to connect with her in whatever realm she resides, even if only within my own body."

As part of a multi-year commissioning project entitled Flying Solo, New York-based artist PAMELA PIETRO has created a new work for CONDER/dance - All the things I thought I knew.

PIETRO's piece places modern choreography against the Baroque backdrop of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto to give a fascinating look at how our perspectives shift over time. CARLEY CONDER will perform All the things I thought I knew at the Breaking Ground Festival.

PAMELA PIETRO is an Associate Arts Professor at New York University Tisch School for the Arts and a well-known figure in the contemporary dance world. Her teaching has allowed her to work with students in China, Israel, Australia, India, and Malaysia, where building international bridges through her teaching and choreography.

Contemporary dancer/choreographer and professor, PAMELA GEBER HANDMAN comes to Tempe from Salt Lake City to present her fascinating work, Before she sleeps in the sand.

Performed against large scale projections of abstract paintings of desolate roads and lonely places, the four acclaimed dancers move to melancholy and surreal sounds punctuated by trumpet, piano and synthesized instruments.

Set to an old American folk tune made popular by Nina Simone, and recently recorded by Marlon Williams, SHELLY HAWKINS performs her new piece Dust to Dust. In a scene lit to evoke a human heart, HAWKINS illustrates the tragedy of a woman grappling with life choices, and eventually accepting her fate.
Hawkins is an emerging Arizona artist doing incredible work in Tucson and was selected by Breaking Ground 2018 to contribute works for the Main Stage and for "tiny dances."

Immersed in the psychological aspects of dance, choreographer SHAUNA MEREDITH's new work, Perception of Separation will be performed at the Breaking Ground Festival.

MEREDITH's piece examines how hateful rhetoric and language affects the psyche as dancers move from states of vulnerability to strength -and inspire us with the community of human connection.