Breaking NewGrounds
The stage will be full this weekend as Moving Current presents dances by Florida artists.
By MARTY CLEAR
Published May 12, 2005
TAMPA - Four years ago, Moving Current, Tampa's pre-eminent dance collective, introduced a modest little weekend of concerts called NewGrounds. The idea was to present pieces by new choreographers whose work hadn't been seen often by local audiences.
Every year more and more choreographers from around Florida started applying to be part of NewGrounds, and organizers found they could be more selective.
"This year, I think we turned down as many as we accepted, and that's never happened before," said Erin Cardinal, one of the founders of Moving Current.
In fact, Cardinal said, Moving Current found itself with so many worthwhile dances, this weekend's concert can barely contain them all.
"Because we have so many pieces, there's one that's being done while the audience is coming in, and another one during intermission," Cardinal said. "The one during intermission actually travels. It follows the audience from the theater into the lobby."
Another consequence of becoming more selective is that instead of just presenting emerging choreographers, NewGrounds now focuses on dance created by Florida artists.
"We have a lot of South Florida artists this year," Cardinal said. "Some of them are emerging choreographers, but all the work is professional quality. It's all well-crafted dance."
Cardinal allows that the name NewGrounds no longer entirely fits. But this year, at least, most of the choreographers are new to the Tampa Bay area.
Plenty of locals will be represented in this weekend's concert as well, including Maria Juan, Diana Mighdoll and Erin Taylor, all of whom have danced with Moving Current in the past but have limited experience as professional choreographers.
For the second year, NewGrounds will include a community project conceived around Forever Moving, a group of senior dancers based at Tampa's Life Enrichment Center. In this weekend's piece, Forever Moving will be joined by four Moving Current dancers (including Cardinal, who is five months pregnant), five high school students and three children.
"The idea of the piece is that, as you grow up, different people influence you," Cardinal said. "So we had each of the dancers pick three people who had influenced their lives and movement gesture about each of them."
PREVIEWMoving Current's NewGrounds concert, 8 p.m. Friday and 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday at Theatre I, University of South Florida, Tampa. $15 general admission, $10 for seniors and $6 for USF students. Tickets available at the door. Call (813) 974-2323.