Return to Atlas Lang Theatre for ICONS choreographer’s collective 2026 premiering a new work

In May, we returned to the Atlas Performing Arts Center with a work titled “Pebbles at a River’s Edge”. A quintet, this dance was second generation of a trio we choreographed for National Choreography Month. SylviDances longstanding members Rachel Lawal and Deanna Woodman directed, shaped and rehearsed the piece making it stage ready.

Sylvana Christopher, Grace Cannon, Aaron Jackson, Keith Macadangdang, and Tam Phan-Nguyen (our newest guest artist) performed and premiered the work in the 2nd annual ICONS Choreographer’s Collective. The choreography is to a short piece of music inspired by space travel entitled “Voyager: Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings 1” by Oliver Davis that as Cannon put it is like an ‘ear worm’.

The company experimented with bouldering off a cliff and ricocheting off one another’s bodies. We worked at rounding our spines challenging each other with stillness and elongated pauses. Our subtle improvisation played with force and motion. Jostling till equidistant we ebb and flow. Imagine rushing water and baby sea turtles dancing over and under crashing waves. Yes, I am mixing our ‘river’ with ‘ocean’ imagery but stay with me please. Flashes and flicks of fins and tails becoming offerings. We divide into 2’s and 3’s, swirl into eddies, and ricochet some more. A beautiful collection forms in a semi circle and traces the river underbelly. We go for ride when offered, dive into the water head first, and perch precariously atop a fellow pebble. At last we have come to stillness again… for now.