Backhausdance with the East Valley Dance Project Ensemble

The North Shore at Salton Sea and the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve make for stunning settings in two dances created for the screen. Reverie features ten high school students from Coachella Valley and Desert Mirage High Schools in the eastern part of Riverside County. Grounded is performed by the professional dance company Backhausdance from Orange County. In this dynamic program, choreographer Jennifer Backhaus and dancers Santiago Villareal and Adrien Padilla invite you to physically explore some of the ideas in each dance. You’ll come away with a deeper understanding of dance as an artform, your body as an expressive instrument, and all that can happen in the layers between earth and sky.

 

Recommended Grades: 2-12 

Length: 45 minutes

 

Connections: dance, choreography, nature, body, health, kinesiology, athleticism, community, self-awareness, visual storytelling, film & editing 

 

“A fluid, unforced fusion of classical and contemporary dance.” 

-The Brooklyn Rail

 

 

"Between Earth and Sky was amazing for us to explore because part of it took place in our Coachella Valley. The students made discoveries and connections about feelings and movement. I was struck by the overall beauty of the integration of dance with nature. This experience gave my students a study of another art form and allowed them to think about and experiment with how thoughts and feelings can be expressed by the body."

-Diane Novack, Lincoln Elementary School, 2nd/3rd grades