May 3, 2017 • By Sue Postema Scheeres

CU Contemporary Dance Works will return to Paonia this month to lead dance outreach workshops and a public performance.

The graduate dance students from the University of Colorado Boulder will perform  “Diversiform: An Evening of Dance,” at the Blue Sage Center for the Arts on Friday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m., which will explore story, memory and emotion through tap, contemporary and African dance.

In addition, the dance company, which goes on tour each May to Colorado communities underserved by the arts, will teach dance workshops at area schools and offer community dance classes for children, adults and teachers from May 15 to 19 at the center, 228 Grand Ave. in Paonia.

Carol Newman, director of Blue Sage, said the classes and performance fit well with the center’s focus on providing a variety of art opportunities to North Fork Valley residents.

“Getting such talented people to the valley is wonderful,” Newman said. “We don’t have a lot of dance performances in this community, and this performance and the classes will allow adults and children the opportunity to express themselves in new ways.”

The program was started in 1990 to bring dance to areas of the state with limited access to the arts, to build awareness of dance as an art form, and to provide additional performance venues for dance students, said Nada Diachenko, CU Contemporary Dance Works’ founder and advisor. Since 1990, the program has served more than 20,000 people, and is CU Boulder’s longest running outreach program.

“The dancers are powerful advocates for the university and for the art of dance,” said Diachenko.

In the past, the dance company went on multi-city tours as part of CU This Summer, frequently in coordination with the CU Presidents’ visits to Colorado communities. Now, CU Contemporary Dance Works focuses on weeklong residencies in a select area during the month of May, returning to that area for three to five years to build relationships and strengthen community partnerships. The residency was based in Trinidad for five years; this will be the fourth year that the dance company partners with Paonia community organizations.

For Vivian Kim, a graduate student in dance and tour director, returning to Paonia again this year has nurtured a bond between the community and members of the company.

“It’s amazing to see a group of people who barely know each other at the beginning of a class, come together and feel a genuine connection to one another because of the honesty, vulnerability and excitement that dance innately brings with it,” said Kim.

The program is partially funded through CU Boulder’s Office for Outreach and Engagement, which helps connect faculty research, teaching or creative work to communities.

Tickets for the performance are $10, which will be collected at the door. All proceeds will benefit the center’s Children’s Art Program.

To find out more about the performance or the community classes, contact Carol Newman.

To find out more about the CU Contemporary Dance Works outreach program contact Peg Posnick, theatre and dance outreach coordinator.