DANCE

Five new dances with designer costumes will be performed to raise funds for Betty’s Closet, a costume co-op at The Dance Complex.

In the first half of the concert, five pieces will be performed with the dancers in rehearsal clothes. After intermission, the works will be presented again, with the dancers wearing the costume designed for them.

Joan Green is creating a subtly quirky duet, The Principles of Uncertainty, and is collaborating with designer Deborah Parker. Annie Kloppenberg is setting a new duet on dancers from Maine and Kelley Donavan will be building a solo. Stephen Chang is creating a 6tet, and Solé Nazare is designing the costumes. Katie Egan has a large group piece to premier. Other designers working with the choreographers are Shaniece Cooper and Erika Carey.

In December, 2010, Betty Milhendler died at age 87. She had been an original member of Prometheus Dance’s Elders Ensemble. Always first at a party and the last to leave, Betty loved performing both on stage and off. Her love of life was manifest in her dancing, her talking, her being, her dressing.

Mention costumes to most choreographers and they pale. Some have clear ideas of what is part and parcel of the dance, and are eager to realize the full vision of their work. Others get ideas when they see something (somewhere) that they like. If a dance maker is lucky, an artist can be hired to design and build the costumes. More often, the dancers scavenger their closets to see what similar and danceable clothes they might have.

With a costume co-op, there will choices and ideas for the sharing. There will be an annual co-op fee, and rental deposit, but kids can borrow shoes they may quickly outgrow. Dancers get a costume for a one-evening gala performance.

All revenue from Fashionless Dance will go to help support Betty’s Closet. This event is funded, in part, by the Cambridge Arts Council. The Dance Complex , a 501(c)3, is supported by the MCC.