Starr Foster Dance Project’s first performance of the season, “Possessions,” begins Thursday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. at the Grace Street Theater. The modern dance show consists of three parts: “Hiding Exhalation,” “Release” and “Baggage (and the Seven Deadly Sins).”
The Starr Foster Dance Project was established in 2000 by Artistic Director Starrene Foster, a VCU alumna who is also a professor in the dance and choreography department and at Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Arts and Technology. The company consists of eight dancers, ages 19-30, three of whom are also VCU alumni.
Foster choreographs each dance and selects the dancers for the Starr Foster Dance Project. She strives to keep the dancers diverse so viewers do not see too much repetition or get bored watching them. Foster said the dancers are all very different but compliment one another well.
“(Choreography) comes from a non-verbal place to me. One of my aesthetics is I give material to my dancers and they do it (at first) because I tell them to. Then it becomes theirs, they begin to own it and it turns into something
else,” Foster said.
Foster said she and the dancers have turned all three parts of the show from just choreography into something more. It is exactly how she hoped and
envisioned it would be, Foster said.
“It is a really well-rounded show; there’s definitely going to be something for everyone in the audience. The three pieces are so different in movement qualities and themes but they tie really well together,” said Jordan Livermon, who dances in “Release” and “Baggage.”
The first part of the evening is “Hiding Exhalation,” a duet originally written in 2007 and meant to be performed by two women. For “Possessions,” a man and a woman will be performing the piece. It is about friendship, resentment, forgiveness and more resentment, Foster said.
“All three pieces have a different energy to them; the duet feels more emotional and slow-paced, yet still energetic,” said Aaron Canfield, one of the performers in the duet. Canfield is also a ballerino who performs with the Richmond Ballet.
The second performance, “Release,” is about six people who are on a journey together but take very different paths. Throughout the journey they end up in the same places despite their separate paths. This dance focuses on partner