Full Circle Dance Company's 12th Annual performance season is titled Moving Passages: Dances Inspired by Writing. It features several new works all created from the impetus of twitter feeds, Shakespeare sonnets, Poe poems, and personal stories.

Full Circle Dance Company, now celebrating its 10th Anniversary season, is a multiethnic professional ensemble that performs exciting choreography from a variety of modern dance traditions. Based in Baltimore, MD, the company draws on the diverse backgrounds of its dancers and works in a collaborative spirit to bring technically stunning and emotionally challenging dance to a wide audience.

Founded in 2000 as an experiment by dedicated instructors and students at the company's residence, Morton Street Dance Center, the company makes special efforts to collaborate with artists from other disciplines and to reach beyond traditional audiences for dance. In previous years, the company has worked with professional writers, students, nursing home residents, expectant mothers, and others, incorporating input from the community into its choreography. The company looks forward to additional community input for its next major project for 2011...to be announced soon!

Full Circle has built a strong body of work that tackles challenging thematic topics. Marking the company's 10th anniversary year, Full Circle set out to challenge its audience to think in new ways about water's place in our world. Debuting in February 2010 AQUEOUS: Awakening Our Connections to Water explored water's impact on our lives, from the devastation of its absence to the solace it can bring to one's soul. In 2009, Full Circle produced The Unconscious: Dreams and Fears, an intensive choreographic crucible which examined diverse aspects of the mind and involved members of the community to participate the artistic journey. Sacred Body was created in 2008 to encourage discussion regarding spirituality and religion--how and why people pray, religion as a source of conflict within our families and across communities, and how faith can provide support for the suffering and unite as well as divide. And in 2006, Full Circle embarked on a yearlong exploration of race and discrimination entitled Borders Uncrossed. This challenging project brought together local and visiting choreographers, dancers, and non-dancers for an honest investigation of the entrenched ideas that affect our perceptions of each other.

Full Circle Dance Company has performed locally at the Lyric Opera House, Hippodrome Theater hosted by Dance Baltimore, at Artscape, at Theatre Project, at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and by invitation in the Maryland Council of Dance Festival Concert. The company has also performed by invitation at the Music City Arts Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and the Broadway Dance Centerâ??s Choreographersâ?? Performance Outlet in New York, and at Tempe Center for the Arts for the Breaking Ground Choreographer's Showcase in Tempe, Arizona.

Watch "The Making Of" to learn more about how, and why, we got started...

Baltimore?s Full Circle Dance Company has invested a full year exploring controversial and provocative issues related to body image. The result of this journey is B.A.R.E., a performance of new works by seven choreographers, each with a unique perspective on anxieties, stereotypes, and secrets related to the body. B.A.R.E. will premiere November 4 and 5 at 7:30 pm at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Race, prostitution and sexual power, the fashion industry, and even dancers? own relationships with their primary artistic tools are among the themes investigated in the new works.

Highlights include:

*A dance of frustration at the absurdity of ?one size fits all? clothing labels. Parts of this dance take place in a department store dressing room, where efforts to find a fit reach fevered hilarity.
*A dance that considers contemporary fashion images of women as well as the story of Saartjie Bartman, the African woman exhibited in 19th-century Europe as ?The Hottentot Venus?.
*A work built from the words and worries of ordinary citizens, who shared their body secrets with the choreographer via anonymous postcards.
*A moving, heart-pounding examination of the ways abuse can warp body image and strong relationships can help repair the damage.
*A layered exploration of the ways sexuality can both enslave and free women and of the power dynamics involved when women?s sexuality is exploited.

Full Circle is well-known to Baltimore audiences for technical, athletic, and moving work on such challenging themes as race, religion, and motherhood. Now in its eleventh year, the company has been a visible cultural ambassador for its home city, performing by invitation throughout Maryland and in Arizona, Virginia, Washington DC, Ohio, New York, and Connecticut.
B.A.R.E. features newly commissioned works by Ohio choreographer Travis Gatling, company director Donna L. Jacobs, Washington choreographers Hope Byers and Kakuti Lin, and Maryland choreographers Timothy Phelps, Allison Powell, and Jenny Seye. Set to a vibrant range of music, some composed specifically for this performance and some performed live, B.A.R.E. is designed to provoke, amuse, and engage its audience, uncovering emotionally powerful issues that too often remain concealed.

On October 10, 2010 (10.10.10), Full Circle Dance Company commemorated 10 years of making its home in Baltimore with a concert of 10 signature works it has presented over the past decade. Entitled Circle Back: Tenfold, the performance included moving excerpts from the companyâ??s deep investigations of race and religion, favorites by award-winning company director Donna L. Jacobs, and signature athletic dances by Ohio-based choreographer Travis Gatling. And in recognition of the many dancers and choreographers who have helped shape Full Circle over the years, alumni and special guests joined company members onstage in a rousing, floor-shaking excerpt from Gatlingâ??s electric Sin Shakers and Shouters.

Watch our preview to see excerpts of the company's best work featured in Circle Back: Tenfold. It is a true synopsis of how our company represents Baltimore's dance community!

Soon to embark on its 20th Anniversary in Baltimore, Morton Street Dance Center is Baltimore's most comprehensive dance school. Home to Full Circle Dance Company and over 125 aspiring dancers from the Baltimore region, Morton Street Dance Center is a place that nurtures young talent and sets the stage for professional artistic growth.

Morton Street's exceptional teaching staff offers exciting, age-appropriate, developmental instruction for professional level dancers and every member of the family age 3 to adult.

By audition, students may be invited to become part of one of our performing ensembles for students age 8 to 18. The Repertory ensembles perform frequently throughout the year in venues that include: Balitmore's citywide Artscape Festival; the Dorothy P. Stanley Dance Festival at Morgan State University; DanceBaltimore at the Morris Mechanic Theatre and the Hippodrome Theatre; Baltimore's Annual Preakness Parade; the African American Heritage Arts Festival; and in the summer of 2008, headlined the "Music City Arts Conference" in Nashville, TN.

In addition to presenting an immensely popular Annual Spring Concert, Morton Street also hosts an annual Summer Intensive, and has a history of other educational programs. In 2004 and 2005, Morton Street hosted a seven week Summer School in the Arts program, offered on behalf of the Morton Street Foundation, Inc. and sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. This was one of 25 programs in the U.S. selected for funding and offered many young dancers the chance to embrace the art of dance and immerse themselves in an enriching, enlivening atmosphere.

Morton Street prides itself on its professional, technical, and inspired instruction, designed to meet the needs of each of its students. Morton Street was voted Baltimore's Best Dance School, by the Maryland Small Business Association, and voted as providing Baltimore's Best Dance Instruction by the U.S. Commerce Association in 2009. Morton Street is a proud member of DanceBaltimore and the Maryland Council for Dance. Morton street is also supported, in part, by the Morton Street Foundation, Inc. a 501(c)(3) corporation.

Full Circle Dance Company is in residence at the Morton Street Dance Center. The important partnership between school and company creates opportunities for professional dancers to share their knowledge with young dancers in training.

From throb of the vast sea to the perfect stillness of a single drop, from the devastation of its absence to the destructiveness of its overabundance, from its impact on the soul to its mark on literature and culture, we cannot escape the power of water.

On February 27, 2010, Baltimoreâ??s Full Circle Dance Company presented Aqueous: Awakening our Connections to Water at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The Aqueous project was a yearlong artistic voyage by five different choreographers, each creating a wholly different work and united by their interest in water. Every piece presented at the concert was newly commissioned, and together represented the diversity of viewpoints for which Full Circle has won local and national attention.

About the Works:

Virginia-based choreographer Erica Feriozziâ??s â??The Last Dropâ? began with the swirling eddies and whooshing waves of abundance. Urging the audience to appreciate the sustaining beauty and power of water, Feriozzi then challenged viewers to ponder the dwindling and loss of this life-giving resource.

Full Circle artistic director Donna L. Jacobs explored water legends across cultures. Her dynamic and rhythmic choreography, etched with timeless images of water gods and goddesses, vividly expressed waterâ??s central place in human cultural and spiritual life.

Ohio choreographer Travis Gatling, whose lush and powerful movement style has impressed audiences around the country, drew inspiration for his new work from Kate Chopinâ??s novel The Awakening. "Thirst" explored the seductiveness of water and our fascination with it as a symbol of deep inner yearning and desire.

Inspired by the impact of both water and art on the human soul, Maryland choreographer Allison Powell created a powerful duet that was both athletic and introspective. Defying gravity and inverting the human form, Powell abandoned the limits of the solid and captured the freedom of the liquid.

Washington DC choreographer Hope Byersâ??s work reflected on the universality of spiritual cleansing and purification rituals. Exploring links between physical purification and spiritual purification, Byers called on the audience to see personal experiences of cleansingâ??such as baptismâ??as part of the larger human spiritual story.

About our Community Outreach Effort for Aqueous

Full Circle Dance Company is committed to outreach, and the Aqueous project reached beyond the stage and into the community. The matinee performance featured a guest appearance by students of Roland Park Elementary School, who had collaborated with Full Circle to create a dance about the Chesapeake Bay.

What are you most afraid of? Failure? Death? Being alone? How do these fears shape your life? What does the self you display to the world conceal? What dreams, aspirations, or dark thoughts lurk beneath the surface? What might your nightmares reveal about the life you lead? Can understanding your dreams shed light on who you are?

Tackling these questions head-on, Baltimoreâ??s Full Circle Dance Company embarked on an ambitious project entitled The Unconscious: Dreams and Fears. With a grant from the city of Baltimore and with involvement from the community, the company created six new works by six choreographers from Baltimore and beyondâ??all exploring aspects of the mind. Intended as an intensive choreographic crucible to showcase diverse perspectives and approaches, the project culminated in a performance at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

As with previous thematic projects exploring race, religion, and motherhood, Full Circle invited members of the community to participate in its artistic journey. Working with schoolchildren on related choreography and soliciting ideas from Baltimoreans of all ages, the dancers and choreographers uncovered rich source material for their work.

â??We always like to look beyond our own circle for different perspectives,â? explained company director Donna Jacobs. â??What surprised us this time is the universality of some of our fearsâ??fear of failure for example. That theme is sure to arise in some of the new choreography that is underway.â?

Washington-based choreographer Hope Byers explored ways some of these universal fears hold us back, imposing limits and restricting our freedom. Her athletic, intense work reflected an internal struggle: we sometimes cling to our fears even as we wish we could escape them.

The very strangeness of the human psyche can make us laugh, as choreographer Misty Borst demonstrated. Her new work peeked into the minds of apparently calm office workers to reveal extraordinary fantasiesâ??some light and others dark.

Dante Jeniferâ??s new dance made vivid a surreal nightmare that reflected the tumultuous experience of childhood in todayâ??s world.

Donna Jacobs explored shadows, both literal and figurative.

And Theresa DeAngelo pushes angst aside in a dreamy celebration of love.

The Unconscious also included a new work by Ohio-based choreographer Travis Gatling, whose sumptuous movement style and gift for conveying emotional truth have made him a favorite choreographer among Baltimore dance audiences.

Two Full Circle favorites that are relevant to the theme completed the evening. Donna Jacobsâ??s â??Spirits Fallen,â? a revival of the first work ever created for Full Circle Dance Company, demonstrated a haunting yet joyful dream of dance after death. And Erica Feriozziâ??s â??Balanceâ? revealed how mind and body are joined in a meditative search for tranquility.

Religion provides solace and inspiration, motivates charity, and unites diverse communities. It also fuels bloody battles across the globe, provokes debate over the rights of women and gays, and wields hidden power over the political process. Religionâ??s complex history of comfort and conflict stretches across the millennia, as old as human culture itself.

In February 2008, local and visiting choreographers brought together their own visions of the human spiritual impulse. Sacred Body: In Response to Religion, was an evening of inspired and inspirational new works resulting from a yearlong project exploring religion, faith, and culture. Weaving the personal stories and spiritual questions of members of the community into an interdisciplinary sensory experience, Sacred Body engaged the souls, minds, eyes, ears, and even hands of the participating audience.

Drawing on the powerful postures of prayer found in different religions from around the world, Ohio-based choreographer Travis Gatling created a work both personal and universal. Filled with both appreciation and questioning of his own religious upbringing, it is a visually stunning symbolic representation of one personâ??s spiritual journey.

Baltimore choreographer Erica Feriozziâ??s intimate, serenely beautiful choreography drew on Buddhist and Christian source material, inviting the audience to experience the stillness and peace central to several faiths.

Baltimore physician/choreographer Misty Borstâ??s work offered an alternative paradigm founded in science. Her odd and quirky movements made vivid the marvels of the communities of life, often invisible, that surround us.

Full Circle Dance Company director Donna Jacobsâ??s narrative, historical work explored the central place of the Bible and Christianity in the African American journey from slavery to citizenship. It is a story of suffering and endurance, of faith and strength that will both move and educate. Her work, titled "Unforsaken," earned Ms. Jacobs the Mark Ryder Original Choreography Award in 2009 from the Howard County Arts Council. Ms. Jacobs's second work for the Sacred Body project, "Worthy," was an uplifting expression of praise performed to stunning live gospel music by Alton Scarborough.

Sacred Body also featured a special collaborative work that incorporated ideas about religion and spirituality contributed through community discussions.

Watch a clip of the award winning, "Unforsaken" on this page!

Borders Uncrossed
Article written by Christina Royster-Hemby
Baltimore City Paper

Two lithe women--one black, one white--saunter toward each other from opposite ends of a well-lit room. As they meet in the center, their arms extend forward and they clutch each other by the throat. They hold this pose for a moment before reluctantly letting go and turning away, heading to opposite ends of the room. A few beats later, two different women--one black, one white--sail past each other, this time saying the words suggested by the dancers' movements: "I hate white people" and "I hate black people," each uttered with whispered, half-spit venom.

These exchanges were part of Full Circle Dance Company's latest program, Borders Uncrossed, which debuted at the Baltimore Museum of Art for Black History Month in 2007.

Racial differences are more about the ugly, deep-rooted ideas that are left unsaid, society writ large symbolized by the black and white dancers here. And even though Full Circle choreographed several dances for Borders Uncrossed to explore racial differences and suggest a path to racial dialogue, the dancers felt that at the end of the day the usual hatred will win out.

"This is a project we had fear about," said Donna Jacobs. "We're an interracial dance company," she says. "Do we have to bring in a facilitator to handle this [subject]? Would thoughts and latent opinions and experiences come out in our dance that would injure people?"

The project began when dancers were discussing topics for their next show. Madi Jackson, a Full Circle dancer and choreographer, suggested doing something on race. So the company, as it usually does, sponsored a community forum on race to inform their eventual dances.

Only about 20 people showed up, many of whom were Full Circle members. "Not everybody wants to talk about race," Jacobs says. "Many times people don't know how their opinions will be perceived by someone else. They don't know what is safe to say and how others will judge you based on what you said."

The members of Full Circle decided that, for this particular subject, conferring among the company was a more effective strategy. They talked about race in an intimate, familiar setting about racial slurs, misconceptions and stereotypes, interracial relationships, special treatment or the lack thereof. And what they found is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

One of the younger company members shared with Jacobs how when she walks down her street one family stands outside and yells "nigger" as she walks by. An older member shared a story of his house being shot at by the Ku Klux Klan when he was a growing up 30 years ago. Some white members talked about growing up in all-white communities where they really didn't have to deal with race. These memories and stories showed up in their dances.

Jacobs said, "there have been moments when I have [asked myself], `Have I gone too far? Did I say too much? Was that last button the one I shouldn't have pushed?'" Jacobs added that when the dancers had to say hurtful things to one another she watched their body motions to see if such sentiments came through in their other movements.

"Deep Bayou," choreographed by Jacobs, was set to Nina Simone's "Four Women," and in it the dancers--some biracial, some black--danced in motions expressed their racial backgrounds. Their struggles were all different, but their dances were equally intense. In the dance's second section, a black dancer portrayed a character who is tired, weary, and near death from a long life of servitude.

"This project made us a more cohesive unit," said Liz Pelton. "We felt that we got a lot closer, even though we delved into these hard issues...individuals can learn a lot from each other and make progress."

Another dancer shared how skin color is an arduous road even within a family unit. April Lawyer, one of eight children, and her younger brother are the darkest-skinned of them all, and he uses foundation to lighten his skin. Lawyer added, "I wanted him to be aware that he's not alone. All of us are going through it."

And that's what Jackson and Jacobs meant when they said they fear that race is never going to go away. "They may shift and manifest in various ways, but I don't know if [racial issues] will ever go away," Jackson said, "which is the whole reason for the piece."