Dayton Contemporary Dance Company takes center stage at CTA March 28-29

The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company performs March 28 and 29 at the Center for Theatre Arts.

A leader in performing American modern dance, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) brings its powerful and passionate style to Cornell's Center for Theatre Arts March 28 and 29 at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $30 for the public, $25 for students and seniors. To order, call 254-ARTS or stop by the CTA box office weekdays from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.

At Cornell the company will be performing "On the Wings of Angels," a tribute to the wartime efforts of the Tuskegee Airmen; "Las Desenamoradas," choreographed by Eleo Pomare; "Mourner's Bench," which reflects on the end of a community destroyed by the Ku Klux Klan; and "Sets and Chasers," a ballet set to the jazz and swing sounds of Duke Ellington.

As part of the DCDC's outreach efforts, on March 27 several of the company's 12 dancers will give a free lecture-demonstration to children in the Ithaca City School District's after-school programs that will illustrate a day in the life of a professional dancer. In addition, one of the dancers will lead a class in modern dance for students at the Ithaca Community School of Music and Art.

The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, founded in 1968 by Dayton, Ohio, native Jeraldyne Blunden, has earned an international reputation for its artistic endeavors. Under the auspices of the Black Tradition in American Modern Dance, a project of the American Dance Festival, DCDC is the world's largest repository of reconstructed modern dance classics. The masterworks performed by the company provide a historical benchmark of American modern dance. While other dance companies perform the work of a single artist, DCDC's repertory is the result of input from the best choreographers in the nation.

The Cornell performances are funded in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts.