DBDT Encore! Rising Excellence 2023

NBC 5 invites you to experience the Dallas Black Dance Theatre (DBDT) Encore! Rising Excellence performance on Friday and Saturday, April 21 & 22, at the Moody Performance Hall in Dallas.

This year’s performances feature the heritage and memories of Japanese, Polish, and African American choreographers: Takehiro Ueyama, Katarzyna Skarpetowska, and Tyrone C. Walker. Takehiro Ueyama shares his Japanese heritage through his work, Heroes, which combines powerful athleticism and delicate gestures. Ueyama choreographed the piece that honors the dedication and perseverance of citizens who played a crucial role in Japan’s recovery after World War II and are driving its success today.

Snow Playground is an abstract work by Katarzyna Skarpetowska, who grew up in Warsaw, Poland. The work takes its inspiration from a peaceful image of swirling snow in a gentle wind as it moves across the surface of a children’s playground. At times, it gathers speed and brings more of itself into the fold; at other times, it settles in repose just to be picked up again soon after by another gust in a different cluster. Similarly, the dancers form and break relationships, rearranging themselves into various groupings as they coil, swivel, and surge in relentless pursuit. The work evokes the peacefulness of this simple natural occurrence that is both mesmerizing and meditative.

When Tyrone C. Walker choreographed Prototype, he had robots in mind to demonstrate the internal struggle of breaking loose from factory-made minds while searching for self-discovery to find your true self. In conceptualizing Prototype, he tried to answer the question, “What would you do if no one was watching with judgmental eyes or closed minds?” Walker, an African American, grew up in Washington, DC, and is a former DBDT dancer.