Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts

Welcome to Grace Street Theater

Virginia Commonwealth University's Grace Street Theater is a little known but successful example of renovation and adaptive use of a historic property. The building originally opened in 1935 as the Lee Theatre, a neighborhood movie theater showing second-run films. It served for a brief period in the late 1950s/early 1960s as an art house theater. In 1965 it became known as the Lee Art Theatre and began presenting adult films along with burlesque style dancers. VCU purchased the property in 1993 and after extensive renovations the building re-opened in 1996 as VCU's Grace Street Theater. The theater is now the primary performing venue for VCU's Department of Dance and Choreography which operates the building and the box office. VCU's Department of Art History and Cinema Program also uses the building for many of its classes and screenings. In addition to its University uses, the 225 seat theater is available to the Richmond community to rent for dance performances, films, lectures, and other events.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

INNER ECHOES

Spring Senior Projects 2012

April 26, 27, & 28 @ 8pm

VCU Dance will present INNER ECHOES, the 2012 Spring Senior Project Concert, Thursday, Friday & Saturday, April 26, 27, & 28 at 8:00 pm at the Grace Street Theater, 934 West Grace Street, Richmond, VA. Tickets are $15/$10 students with valid I.D. and are available now at http://www.showclix.com/ or by calling 804-828-2020.

The VCU Dance Senior Project is a capstone experience for senior dance majors, equivalent to a thesis. In Inner Echoes, nine VCU Dance seniors, bonded by a formative journey, explore how internal connections of their past have shaped them in the present, both as artists and as human beings. Together the choreographic works offer insight into the unwavering imprints left by relationships, memories and personal tribulations.

Brittany Alness’s drift was inspired by Pablo Picasso’s 1932 oil painting, “The Dreamer”. Alness and her five dancers explore the painting in order to craft a movement piece echoing the curvature of the black lines in the painting.

Without fixed limits there is no definition: U N ~ D E F I N E D, a work created by Marcus I. Ball, examines the concepts of limitations, boundaries, and coating. Eleven individuals investigate being a part of and apart from society, and the implications of their voices being silenced. An intimate notion stemming from a photographic silent protest, The NOH8 Campaign (a response to the passage of Proposition 8). U N ~ D E F I N E D creates a visual landscape of bodies in space wrestling with expectations formulated by society as well as internally.

Cultivated Indifference, by Rachael Cuff, is based on and explores Eric Erikson’s psychological theory, Initiative vs. Guilt. She uses contrasting movement of soft, fluid styles and sharp, angular styles to describe Erikson’s theory. The theory suggests that initiative is supportive and caring, while guilt suggests that there is no support in life situations.

Voice Mails, created by Beau Dobson, is centered on the idea of a dancer’s reactions and imagination when hearing about life-altering events. The piece displays the inner emotions of one person and how, in one day, it can ebb and flow, sparked by a series of words, or even just one.

Choreographed by Katherine Ellis, Stages of Realization examines the fickle course of a romantic relationship. Inspired by Frédéric Chopin’s classical piano nocturnes, six dancers explore the emotional ups and downs of commitment through compelling physical contact and visceral performances.

Through sweeping physicality and intricate partner work, AJ Guevara’s Behavioral Cusp investigates the human condition when it is forced to contend with the lingering memories of an expired relationship and their enduring influence on the present.

Sam Hall’s The Inbetween looks at the journey of a woman from death to the afterlife. The piece explores her struggle to let go of her previous life and to get past the lost souls bent on keeping her in Limbo. With help from an unlikely source she will eventually find her way and move on. By creating eerie and dynamic movement, Sam Hall transports the audience to the mythological underworld.

How much will we sacrifice and risk to become unbound from ourselves? In Mentenga Su Fe, Kaila Pettus presents an individual struggling to let go of personal barriers preventing them from becoming a person of truth. Through dynamic, percussive and intense movements, the dancer will use strong will and faith to overcome the battlefield of the mind.

In Amy Thurmond’s Post Secret, five friends come together in an intimate setting to unveil past stories. Thurmond explores the interconnectedness of our innermost mysteries using a chorus of dancers echoing spot lit monologues inspired by text from the book Post Secret.