Full Circle Dance Company, Baltimore City’s most visible and established professional dance ensemble, has created an original performance project exploring what it means to have a home, to feel at home, and to be at home in our complicated world. Supported by grants from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, Maryland State Arts Council, Baltimore City, and Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, the project will culminate in a weekend of performances entitled HOME: Longing and Belonging at Baltimore Theatre Project November 19 and 20, 2022.
Now in its 22nd year, this multiracial company of 18 artists presents diverse perspectives on issues that matter in Baltimore, in Maryland, and beyond. Featuring powerful music, dramatic storytelling, and dancing that is both athletic and emotional, HOME will by turns challenge, inspire, amuse, and move audiences.
HOME will include works by multiple choreographers from diverse backgrounds, each exploring the theme from a different angle, including:
Home/Less: Full Circle Artistic Director Donna L. Jacobs illuminates the housing precariousness of many Americans, shining a light on how easy it is to end up unhoused and how hard it is for people on the margins to be seen. (Premiere)
The Hill: Featuring an original poem created by award-winning Baltimore poet Gayle Danley, choreographer Misty Yackshaw’s new work explores the challenges of feeling at home with ourselves as we age. With a spoken-word score and dramatic costumes, this work celebrates the power, knowledge, and creativity of older women. (Premiere)
When the Village Returns to The Yard: Hope B. Byers’s new work is centered on the homecoming tradition unique to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU). Byers highlights and honors the annual event that brings alumni home to share, along with the current students, in a celebration like no other. (Premiere)
Vows: Choreographer Jennifer Seye considers how changing laws and norms related to marriage affect who we are allowed to make a home with. First created in 2014, this work feels both timeless and timely, with new resonance in 2022.
Transient: Full Circle alum Liz Quinones reflects on the immigrant experience, including longing for a home left behind and seeking a new sense of belonging.
Inner Rites: Ohio choreographer Travis Gatling pays homage to the humble acts of domestic caretaking that bind together members of a family and household. The daily tasks of motherhood inspire the movement vocabulary of this powerful work.
Space Between: Guest choreographer Heather Perrow’s deeply personal work portrays the moments between a message of profound loss and the realization of what it means.
Home: Longing and Belonging
Saturday, November 19, 2022 at 7:30 pm, Sunday, November 20 at 2:30 pm
Baltimore Theatre Project, 45 W Preston St, Baltimore, MD 21201
For more information: fullcircledancecompany.org
About Full Circle Dance Company
Full Circle Dance Company, under the direction of Donna L. Jacobs, is a multiracial professional ensemble that performs exciting choreography from a variety of modern dance traditions. Based in Baltimore, the company draws on the diverse backgrounds of its dancers and works in a collaborative spirit to create meaningful dance with broad appeal. Founded in 2000, the company has developed a signature way of working that involves exploring a carefully selected theme for up to a year, commissioning work from multiple choreographers on that theme, involving members of the community in the creative process, and presenting the new works together to offer audiences varied perspectives on each topic. Full Circle has extensive experience working with community groups and has given workshops at Roland Park Elementary Middle School, Irvine Nature Center, Maryland School for the Deaf, and Baltimore City Cancer Program as well as public workshops at its home studio. Full Circle is the company in residence at Morton Street Dance Center, Inc. The important partnership between the school and the company creates opportunities for professional dancers to share their knowledge with young dancers in training.
Full Circle Dance Company performs regularly throughout Maryland and has also performed by invitation in Arizona, Tennessee, Connecticut, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC.
From Our 2021 Audiences
“Amazing and inspiring…. Very special.”
“It was extraordinary. It helped me to exhale…. It changed my week.”
“Everyone should see something like this. So empowering, for men and women.”
“Really great. Very intentional with the theme and the narrative. Very strong.”
“I was filled with pride. It just made me very proud.”
