Avocado Dance Theatre Showcases Local Talent at a Professional Level
“Avocado Dance Theatre, a project of Dance Theatre Collective of Southern California (a non-profit organization) is a multi-generational dance company that gives dance opportunities to dancers and choreographers to explore their art and share their artistry with the community in new and unique ways,” Artistic Director Lori Craig Torok said during a recent interview. “Our goal is to create thought-provoking and moving art that is accessible for a wide range of audience members.”
Now in their fourth year, the Avocado Dance Theatre currently consists of eleven dancers, all from Southern California, and numerous choreographers including guests as well as dancers in the company. In addition to being one of the resident companies of the Old Town Temecula Community Theater, the Avocado Dance Theatre has recently performed at the SoCal Dance Invitational in Orange County, Dance on The Edge in San Diego, and Dance in the Desert in Las Vegas.
When they return home to the Old Town Temecula Community Theater this weekend, Temecula’s own dance company brings new material for their neighbors to enjoy.
“The concert, as a whole, is investigating the ideas of body, clothes, armor,” Torok said. “This is related to how we connect with our environment and each other and the clothing that both reveals our inner states and protects us.”
Two featured works in this weekend’s show integrate multi-media components with the live performers on stage.
“The first [piece] is ‘Journey to a Clear Place,’ which investigates the idea of anger and forgiveness,” Torok said. “The dance film was created by Avocado Dance Theatre, on location at a beach house in Oceanside. The piece also explores the ideas in front of the screen, using layers of clothing to represent the heaviness of anger and then asks, what it is to let anger go. It is an extraordinary journey through dance and film.”
A second piece, entitled “Pressure, or Where Are You Going?” performed by Jeremy Sewell and choreographed by Torok, incorporates actual NASA footage from 1964 and is described by Torok as a “post-modern exploration of imagination and hope.”
In just four short years, the Avocado Dance Theatre has become an integral component in the area’s cultural landscape and Torok and her dancers hope that their friends and neighbors in the Inland Empire take advantage of the unique opportunity that is so easily accessible.
“I think that Temecula and the surrounding areas are very fortunate to have such a wonderful theater that invests and supports the development of new ideas and new projects such as this because it really is an investment in the community,” Torok said. “In this day and age, where everyone is working more and working harder and has less time for vacations, this is a chance to escape a little bit and broaden your horizons and maybe grow a little bit through art.”
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