Take a deep dive into the world of artistic creation and collaboration when dancer and choreographer Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie breaks down her newest work and leads a livestreamed street and club dance improvisation session with her company’s dancers.

The Moss Arts Center presents "Behind the Scenes with Choreographer Ephrat Asherie," on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m. The online event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Moss Arts Center Director of Programming Margaret Lawrence moderates this session with New York City-based b-girl Asherie, the Bessie Award-winning artistic director of Ephrat Asherie Dance. Slated to bring her work “Odeon” to the Moss Arts Center this spring, Asherie breaks down the piece and introduces its dancers, who demonstrate each of their specialties. Then, together, the whole company performs a livestreamed improvisation ranging from breaking, house, and hip-hop, to vogue dancing.

“Asherie is a real dance innovator who has created a completely fresh way of joining her love of social and club dance with such fun, sly, exuberant choreography, you can’t help but be drawn into her wonderful world,” said Lawrence. “This behind-the-scenes session is a rare chance to hear directly from Ephrat, and for each of her dancers to shine.”

“Odeon” brings together and remixes street and club dances, set to buoyant music by Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth. Taking a hybrid approach to movement, the work delves into what happens when you bring together various styles of dance, remix them, pick them apart, and challenge them to inhabit unfamiliar spatial and choreographic contexts.

With extensive training in ballet and modern dance, Asherie has shown off her formidable street dance chops as a favorite member of Dorrance Dance. A 2016 Bessie Award winner for Innovative Achievement in Dance, she most recently received a National Dance Project award to support the development and touring of “Odeon.”

Ephrat Asherie Dance’s first evening-length work, “A Single Ride,” earned two Bessie nominations in 2013 for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer and Outstanding Sound Design. The company has presented work at the Apollo Theater, Dixon Place, FiraTarrega, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, La MaMa, LMCC’s River to River Festival, New York Live Arts, Summerstage, and The Yard, among others.

Asherie will also participate in a conversation with Scotty Hardwig, assistant professor of movement, performance, and integrated media at Virginia Tech. A video recording of the interview will be shared with students in Hardwig’s Introduction to Dance History class in the context of a unit on dance and race in the United States.

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