The first production, Travelers, an evening-length multimedia work examines themes of place, balance and unity.  The piece

“awakens the senses with the power of a runaway train and leaves the audience soaring on a higher plane.”  Sara Hankel, Iowa City Gazette Community News. 

 The company continues to collaborate with visual and performing artists as well as writers, including current Iowa Poet Laureate and  Iowa Writer’s Workshop faculty member Marvin Bell.  Today, Tibet is part of a longer program of dance, theatre, and video using the poetry of Mr. Bell.  (Breathing Between the Lines premiered in Iowa City in 2002 and was made possible in part by a grant from the Iowa Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts)  This poem examines Americans’ fleeting collective memory and our reluctance as a culture to go beyond superficial knowledge.  The dance was inspired by the themes, rhythms, and incredible images in the poem.   Marvin Bell said of this work:

 “…choreography and staging made brilliant use of the poem not using one to illustrate the other but creating an overall effect larger than that of poetry or dance or music alone.” 

            Their most recent collaboration was with Red Cedar Chamber Music, using the music Trio Concertant Over Czech Folk Songs by composer Jerry Owen. The piece, with live music, premiered at the Czech-Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on October 4, 2003 to a standing ovation. 

The composer had this to say:

“…I was not only impressed.  I was moved. The music was transformed for me… the composer of all people.  I heard things about the music, because of the dance, that I had not suspected before…I was not alone.  The overflow audience was ecstatic.” 

And the musicians: 

“It was beautiful… Travelers were magnificent!”

Those who have seen Travelers Dance have had this to say:

“… your dancers were the most magnificent part of the program last night- you were all extraordinary- thank you so much- please tell each of them that I thought it really "made" the  evening.”                             

 Connie Brothers, University of Iowa Writers Workshop

“Traveler’s performance of “Today, Tibet” for the Unitarian Society in Iowa City was one of the most moving and successful performances I have seen in our church service in many years. Marvin Bell’s poem is wonderfully thought-provoking and meaningful, and their choreography conveys both the meaning and the spiritual content of the text.   In a philosophically diverse congregation, it seemed to reach everyone.      

Marvin Bell has said that Traveler’s interpretation of his poetry made him ‘wish I could dance.’ Their performance at the U.U. Society made all of us wish we could dance so well.

Peter Alexander, Arts Center Relations, University of Iowa

 “…choreography and staging made brilliant use of the poem not using one to illustrate the other but creating an overall effect larger than that of poetry or dance or music alone.”

 Marvin Bell, Iowa Poet Laureate

“…I was not only impressed.  I was moved. The music was transformed for me… the composer of all people.  I heard things about the music, because of the dance, that I had not suspected before…I was not alone.  The overflow audience was ecstatic.”

Composer, Jerry Owen

“It was beautiful… Travelers were magnificent!”

Red Cedar Chamber Music 

“A MUSE”, was inspired by the dancers of Travelers Dance Company of Iowa City.  It was their optimistic creativity and movement that gave the silent motion to this stone sculpture.  They were my Muse in its creation.  The degree one art form can influence another is in a way, a spiritual communication.  “A Muse” hopefully communicates this happy experience.   

Gene Anderson, sculptor

This sculpture is currently installed on the Downtown Pedestrian Mall in Iowa City, Iowa

Performances

Travelers Dance welcomes the opportunity to bring modern dance to audiences in ways that are both accessible and unexpected.  The company is available to perform one or more evening-length works, Travelers, Breathing Between the Lines, or The View in their entirety or  individual pieces from these programs.  Our goal is to bring dance to new audiences so we look forward to creating a program that will suit the needs of the presenter.  We are happy to perform a variety of venues:

Travelers, our namesake piece, uses one of a kind paintings on glass slides and sculpture of Gene Anderson to examine themes of place, balance, and unity. Premiered in November 1998 at Studiolo, in Iowa City to three sold-out performances.

            Breathing Between the Lines ( February 2002) incorporates dance, theatre, poetry, music and visual media to examine the role of breath in our lives as well as the boundaries between life and death. It grew out of a collaboration with Marvin Bell and includes 5 of his poems as part of the sound design.  The best  known piece, Today, Tibet has been selected for performances throughout Iowa and was an invited work for the 10^th annual Dancing Poetry Festival in San Francisco, October, 2003.

            The View-premiered in January, 2005 as an evening created entirely for a specific venue. Chait Galleries in Iowa City.  Despite the restrictions of limited space and access for rehearsal as well as the cautions needed for protection of the art, the performance was extremely well received and Travelers Dance looks forward to taking this concept to new galleries, museums and similar venues.

Winter/Spring Performances -  2007

• Project Art February 28, 2007 University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
• First Annual Iowa Dance Fest April 12-15 two different programs
  • Thursday April 12 Old Brick 8-10 pm. Performance and reception for Dance Fest participants and performing artists
  • Saturday, April 14 Iowa City Recreation Center
• Tea Party June 3, 2007 Arts a la Carte fundraiser