Video
LaTasha Barnes’ The Jazz Continuum trailer
LaTasha Barnes, The Jazz Continuum
- This virtual showcase includes footage accompanied by a conversation between Choreographer LaTasha Barnes & Melanie George, Associate Curator, Jacob’s Pillow
2023/2024 Tour Dates
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Fri - Sun, July 21-23, 2023 |
Bates Dance Festival The Jazz Continuum |
Lewiston, ME |
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Fri & Sat, Nov 17 & 18, 2023 |
Kennedy Center The Jazz Continuum |
Washington D.C |
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Fri & Sat, Jan 19&20, 2024 |
University Musical Society The Jazz Continuum |
Ann Arbor, MI |
Please check back soon for newly announced tour dates!
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Press
The Jazz Continuum: “Envisioned and directed by the out-of-this-world dancer LaTasha Barnes.”
– Siobhan Burke, The New York Times
full article
“There’s just no stopping this ‘Continuum.’”
– Jeffrey Gantz, The Boston Globe
full article (PDF)
“Joyfully embodying the legacy of Black vernacular dance in America”
– Lauren Wingenroth, Dance Magazine
“A generous, joyful elixir of an experience.“
– Janine Parker, The Boston Globe
More press
For more press click here
LaTasha Barnes’ The Jazz Continuum centers the prolific artistry of Jazz music and dance as a cornerstone of Black American culture and community. Featuring an intergenerational and multi-disciplinary cast of Black dancers and musicians, this offering to the continuum celebrates the joy and sacred power of the Black experience to each artist – and the ensemble.
Barnes reaches back nearly 100 years, making visible the connections between the past to today’s Black dance expressions including House dance, Hip-Hop and more. The New York Times said of the Bessie-award winning Barnes: “Barnes is especially extraordinary for the way the past and the present can pass through her.” Her facilitation of the casts’ exploration of their relationships to Jazz and its progenies through mind-bending musicality, spectacular athleticism, and boundless joy, shine through the work’s expansive and riveting choreography.
The Jazz Continuum celebrates music and dances from across the diaspora, among them Harlem, Chicago, New Orleans, Cuba, Angola, and Brazil. It conjures the spirits of Black dance elders, including Norma Miller, Frankie Manning, Earl Snake Hips Tucker, Marie Bryant and Marjory Smarth, and many others. Be prepared to witness and celebrate the life and lives of the continuum…
The Jazz Continuum was supported and presented by Guggenheim Works & Process and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2021.
The Jazz Continuum tours with a total of 20: LaTasha Barnes, Melanie George (MC), 9 dancers, 6 musicians & 3 staff/crew.
Link to Jacob’s Pillow PILLOW NOTES doc
Link to Jacob’s Pillow PILLOW TALK recording
Link to Jacob’s Pillow POST-SHOW TALK recording
Bios
Awarded a 2021 Bessie for Outstanding Performer, LaTasha Barnes is an internationally recognized dancer, choreographer, educator, and Tradition-bearer of Black American Social Dance from Richmond, VA. She is globally celebrated for her musicality, athleticism, and joyful presence throughout the cultural traditions she bears: House, Hip-Hop, Waacking, Vernacular Jazz, and Lindy Hop, among them. Barnes’ expansive artistic, competitive and performative skills have made her a frequent collaborator to Dorrance Dance, Singapore based Timbre Arts Group, Ephrat Asherie Dance, and many more. The NY Times said of her most recent collaboration with Caleb Teicher in Swing Out: “Barnes is especially extraordinary for the way the past and the present can pass through her…”
Barnes leadership and business skills have placed her in positions of service as Chair of the Board of Trustees for Ladies of Hip-Hop FestivalⓇ, Vice President of Marketing & Outreach for the International Lindy Hop ChampionshipⓇ, Co-director HellaBlackLindyHop, Board Member of the Black Lindy Hoppers Fund, the Frankie Manning Foundation and a contributing member to the NEFER Global Movement Collective.
Full Bio HERE
Downloads & Links
