As seen in running...strings...only faster

Choreography by Eleanor L. Smith
Photograph by Evan Pike

Even Exchange produces In Our Own Backyard, an informal performance featuring choreographers from around the Triangle area. This performance provides local choreographers an opportunity to show new work and receive audience feedback, and offers our community a glimpse of the Triangle’s diverse dance arts.

The weekend of Nov. 13 and 14 audiences enjoyed performances by Even Exchange Dance Theater, Rainbow Dance Company, Renay Aumiller, Blank Slate Dance, Centennial Campus Middle School Dancers, Courtney Greer, Jean and Mary Arts (founded by Kristin Taylor), nosiDance theater (founded by Allison R. Daniels Gordon).

Other previous In Our Own Backyard 2009-2010 choreographers included: Courtney Greer, Michael Haney, Katherine Keifer Stark, Gaspard Louis of Gaspard&Dancers, Amanda Randall of Blank Slate Dance, Eleanor L. Smith, Carolyn Usanis, and Johanna Caves and the Martin Middle School Dance Company, representing the next generation of modern dancers.

Alyson Colwell-Waber, professor of dance at Meredith College, led a post-performance discussion with the choreographers on Saturday and Even Exchange did so on Sunday.

Submit Choreography for the Next In Our Own Backyard  by sending your Name, Phone Number, E-Mail and Mailing Address along with a brief description of your work and/or mail a DVD of your work to Even Exchange Dance Theater 114 St. Mary’s Street, Raleigh, NC  27605

Through its collaborative process, Even Exchange Dance Theater has created a body of work that is meaningful and pertinent to everyday life. To accomplish this, each year EEDT chooses a new theme and researches it by meeting experts in the field, collecting stories from the community, and drawing on company members’ experiences. Past themes include: our fast-paced modern life, gender stereotypes, roles of spirituality, teenage memories, food and politics, perspectives on history, geological fault lines, and conflict resolution. Pieces range from solos to large company works.

Photograph by Robin Gallant

Even Exchange Dance Theater engages audiences in a variety of environments. The company holds three types of regular performances. One is an EEDT performance, which showcases new choreography. The other, In Our Own Backyard, is produced by EEDT and features choreographers from the Triangle area. EEDT also curates Dance Seen, a free First Friday series that introduces downtown Raleigh to diverse dance artists. Additionally EEDT performs in elementary, middle, and high schools, colleges, festivals, and community events, where the company includes age-specific as well as curriculum-specific material and audience participation. Diverse audiences of all ages enjoy and learn from EEDT’s performances.

RECENT EVEN EXCHANGE EVENTS HAVE INCLUDED:

NC Museum of History North Carolina Awards Reception
Even Exchange performed a site-specific work at the NC Museum of History for the North Carolina Awards reception.

NC Dance Festival Tour
Even Exchange performed as part of the NC Dance Festival Tour in Greensboro, Boone, Raleigh, Charlotte, and Wilmington. At most locations, EEDT performed Vantage Points, a dynamic piece that explores how we view experiences and history from different points of view.

Open EEDT Improvisation and Spring 2011 Performance Kickoff
Audience participants watched EEDT improvise and had an opportunity to speak with the dancers about their work. This improvisation kicked off EEDT’s research for its 2010–11 season exploring poetry and dance and story with Piedmont Laureate Zelda Lockhart. Audience members read aloud from Ms. Lockhart’s work and improvised with EEDT.  

For more information about Ms. Lockhart and the Piedmont Laureate program, visit zeldalockhart.com and www.piedmontlaureate.com.

Even Exchange Dance Theater welcomes people with disabilities.  We strive to meet accommodation requests (large print and braille programs, audio description, sign language interpretation, and active listening devices).  If possible, please make requests to eedt@bellsouth.net 14 days prior to performances/programs. 

Previous Performances

Tales of Strength (1999–2002) grew out of a residency with inmates at the North Carolina Correctional Institute for Women and literacy group Motheread.  It was based on the inmates’ personal stories and was originally performed at the prison. During its tour, company members named the women, spoke in their voices, and shared their stories.

Veil (2001) was a collaboration between EEDT and Vietnam and Gulf War veterans and focused on the subject of violence and the veils of civility.  

As seen in Groundless, Dancers:
Veteran Ann Lee and
EEDT Artistic Director Ann Huntley
Photograph by Matt Kesterson

Groundless (2004) A Celebration of Flight explored experiences of flight including: Vietnam pilots’ experiences, love and its risks, the Wright Brothers’ work, motherhood, dreams, and the search for comfort within uncertainty. As part of its First Flight anniversary celebration, the Dare County Arts Council commissioned EEDT to choreograph on and perform for every school in Dare County.  The work incorporated students’ writing and artwork.

TIME Honored and Embodied (2005) Honored and Embodied, a multi-media piece performed at Raleigh’s Fletcher Opera Theater, explored the idea of aging and included work created with EEDT partners: Growing Together Preschool students, the multigenerational Rainbow Dance Company, the YWCA Golden Oaks seniors, and nontraditional Triangle dancers.

Food for Thought (2006– 2007) explored themes of food and politics, broader ideas of sustenance, and questions about discarding “the imperfect.” The piece grew out of residencies with the YWCA Golden Oaks Seniors and Enloe High School students, Growing Together Preschool, and Raleigh Charter High School as well a workshop with Wake-Interfaith Hospitality Network and a company trip to glean sweet potatoes. As part of the project, EEDT raised over 295 lbs. of food donations for the NC Food Bank.