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Idaho Dance Theatre heats up the stage with ‘Pure Passion’
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Idaho Dance Theatre takes the stage tonight at The Special Events Center in the Student Union Building for an array of performances planned to intrigue audiences throughout the rest of the week with reoccurring shows.
As part of its 18th season, IDT’s “Pure Passion” consists of a collection of original and distinct pieces put together by four choreographers and a performers of various ages and talents.
The show consists of four differently arranged dances providing each choreographer with a sense of individuality and a means to experiment and express their own creativity through various moves to the music accompanying the performances.
Former IDT dancers Jennifer Freeman and Lauren Edson journeyed back to Boise to choreograph two portions of the show, while current IDT members Carl Rowe and Marla Hansen directed the other half.
Rowe, an artistic director for IDT, reaches out to audience members with “Riptide,” a performance, which expresses the idea that there is an underlying rhythm that runs beneath human relationships and connects to the world.
Rowe said it was the music that inspired him, which comes from Boise’s own Dave Allen Earnest.
“I discover what I’m doing as I’m doing it. ‘Riptide’ came from the music,” Rowe said. “Earnest has written music for me and for our spring productions and the moment I heard this particular selection I knew I had to use it.”
Hansen, another artistic director for the company and a dance teacher at Boise State, calls her piece “Sphere of Influence,” which covers the range of human emotion and experience in various forms of dance, either solo or in groups, all while accompanied by the ambient music of Thomas Newman.
From moods filled with anger and sadness to energies of intensity and power, the performance moves even further to express a delicate air.
“The piece expresses the notion that we are in our own worlds, yet everything we do affects each other,” Hansen said. She plans to illustrate this idea to the audience through a glass ball the dancers incorporate into their routine, which they each take turns looking through and manipulating.
Freeman titled her portion of the show “Burden of Guilt,” which dives into the darker sides of emotions concentrating on the feeling of guilt and its effect on the human experience.
Finishing up the show, Edson brings her piece, “Thank You for Coming,” into the concert, which challenges the dancers in a mock-audition format in front of the audience.
In preparation for the show, IDT held practices five times a week since November of last year, each lasting 2-to-5 hours at a time, which pushed dancers to learn and master each movement at a record speed. Hansen expressed that the hardest part of preparing for the show was scheduling and making sure each dancer took care of his or her bodies.
“Pure Passion” opens tonight at 8 p.m. with performances on Friday and Saturday at the same time and a matinee on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Tickets for adults cost $25, while students, seniors and military members receive $12 discounted rates. IDT hopes audiences enjoy the event and look forward to seeing the energy Boise brings to the show.
“It really is entertaining,” Hansen said. “Each piece is like its own little film. You can’t imagine what happens next.
Daniel Kedish
