It was at Dallas DanceFest in 2013 where I first spotted the work that Dallas native Jonathan Campbell had set on the students of Booker T. Washington. I went mad over Confetti & Razor Blades before knowing he was half of the two-man team known as MADBOOTS Dance (his collaboration with Austin Diaz), which I would later see at Jacob’s Pillow. It was also at the very same show that I first set eyes on Joshua L. Peugh’s work, Marshmallow, performed by his company, Dark Circles Contemporary Dance. I was so struck by his idiosyncratic style that I named him one of “25 to Watch” in Dance Magazine in 2015. I was filled with joy when I heard the MADBOOTS team was setting a new work on Dark Circles, which will be performed Nov. 18 & 20, 2016. Peugh happened upon MADBOOTS while he was still in Korea and kept track of them via social media. “The work Jonathan and Austin have created for us revolves around the poem, Tears written by Allen Ginsberg in 1956. It excavates humanity in a really beautiful way,” says Peugh. “Their work is a great match for our existing repertory and complements our dancers and mission.”

FORT WORTH
In 1913, Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring and Nijinsky’s choreography for Ballet Russes nearly caused a riot in Paris. The music, with its jarring experiments in meter, tonality and dissonance, along with themes of human sacrifices and pagan rituals, was a bit much for audiences.

More than a century later, hundreds of choreographers have created their own ballets to that music (for its centennial in 2013, there were dozens), and now you can add Joshua L. Peugh and his Dark Circles Contemporary Dance to that list.

By most measures, it’s been a successful season for Dark Circles Contemporary Dance.

Artistic director Joshua L. Peugh crossed The Rite of Spring off his bucket list, creating a new ballet to the famous Stravinsky music. The piece, set at a 1950s senior prom, premiered at a nearly sold-out Dallas City Performance Hall in March.

Dark Circles Contemporary Dance explores movement through text in Italian choreographer Fabio Liberti’s Here Is Not There, part of the company’s Spring Series in Fort Worth.

The 2015/16 Season for Dark Circles Contemporary Dance will finish off with Spring Series on the Texas Christian University campus at the Erma Lowe Hall, Studio Theatre. The series will include The Rite of Spring by Joshua L. Peugh who was featured in The Scene Stealers in the December/January issue of Patron. The series will also include the world premiere of Italian choreographer Fabio Liberti’s Here is Not There.

DALLAS—Dance fans have another chance to see Dark Circles Contemporary Dance artistic director Joshua L. Peugh’s The Rite of Spring on April 29-May 1 at Erma Lowe Hall Studio Theatre in Fort Worth.   All on the program is a work by Italian choreographer Fabio Liberti.