KDNY: Treading Puddles January 24, 2010

New York-based contemporary dance company KDNY presents TREADING PUDDLES choreographed by Kathleen Dyer and set to original live music by Connecticut composer Cristina Spinei at the Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport, CT, on January 23 at 7:30pm and January 24 at 3pm. Tickets are $20 ($15 students and seniors) and are available at www.kdnydance.com or by phone at 203-227-4177.

At moments on the brink do we bend and bounce back? What does it take to reinvent oneself again from the ground up? KDNY’s TREADING PUDDLES explores the obstacles that emerge unexpectedly in life and translates those experiences into an evening of dances by Norwalk resident Kathleen Dyer that emphasize the importance of resiliency, patience, and the desire for reinvention. While waiting, dreaming and mourning, we grow with everyday storms. The evening’s three premieres, “Evergreen”, “From”, and “Wide Asleep”, feature original music composed by Stamford resident and Juilliard Alumna Cristina Spinei. Appropriate for ages five and up.

Inspired by a painting of a violent storm brewing over a single blade of grass, “Evergreen” considers the potent resiliency in nature and pursues this elusive quality, harnessing the power that it can bring to one’s life.

In “From”, a quartet finds itself lost in a forest of heartbreak where the magic of connection inspires the realization that some breaking is building.
“Wide Asleep” is a comedic exploration of the peculiar disjointed ideas that manifest within those half-awake wee morning hours during which you have suddenly been caught in a fleeting, inexplicable world of uncertainty, embarrassment, and mystery, and it seems completely plausible.

Inspired by the women depicted in Jan Vermeer’s paintings, “Flowers on the table by the Open Window” (2002) recalls an era in which women played a lesser role in society and were often found waiting and wanting.  Leaping out of a life-sized frame, the dancers embody their untold emotions and stories, as they look out of the window into the unknown. Music by Massenet, Gounod, and Cacani.

KDNY Performers: Katie Aggen, Meredith Clinton, Heather Kemp, Lisa Peluso, Alexandra Rose, Shayne Staley, Kaitlyn Waldo and Leslie Ziff.