BRATTLEBORO — Vermont Performance Lab hosts its third annual Open Lab event on Saturday and Sunday, July 15 and 16, in Brattleboro to coincide with the Southern Vermont Dance Festival.
The Open Lab weekend features emerging local and international dance artists from Vermont, Maine, Western Massachusetts, Lithuania, England, and Quebec.
VPL has expanded the Open Lab to two festive afternoons that will include free and informal performances and opportunities to meet and talk with the artists and socialize with neighbors and dance aficionados.
For Saturday, VPL has organized a beer garden featuring Vermont craft brews from Whetstone Station and Halyard Brewing.
The shared program on Saturday July 15 will feature “B B Dialogue” by Lithuanian choreographers Greta Grineviciute and Agniete Lisickinaite and “Florence Rice Hitchcock and the Theory of Soft Earth” by Massachusetts-based choreographer Sara Smith and performer Candice Salyers.
Sunday's programs will include two works-in-process - “Voice and Vessel” by Hanna Satterlee (Vermont) and Delaney McDonough (Maine) alongside “NO NATIONALISM” by Ellen Furey (Quebec) and Malik Nashad Sharpe (U.K.).
Open Lab showings are free and open to the public - no advance reservations needed.
In addition, on Thursday, July 13, Hanna Satterlee will offer a “Voice and Vessel Creative Process Workshop” as part of the Southern Vermont Dance Festival - information and registration can be found at www.southernvermontdancefestival.com. Advance registration for the Voice and Vessel workshop is recommended.
In a news release, VPL Director Sara Coffey said, “We are excited to move the Open Lab to Brattleboro to coincide with the Southern Vermont Dance Festival to add to the dance offerings for local audiences. The artists working in VPL's Open Lab this summer are raising important questions about our times from a range of perspectives that reflect the diversity and concerns of contemporary dance and performance artists.”