<B>CityDance Ensemble, Reaching to the Past</B><P>Modern Series Reprises Local Works <BR> <BR>By Sarah Kaufman in The Washington Post <P><BR>CityDance Ensemble is a local modern dance group of modest means but grand ambitions. Its program Tuesday at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater -- the troupe's first appearance there -- featured six dances, seven musical interludes and a film. <P>More cabaret than dance concert, perhaps, but that was a welcome effect. If one piece didn't quite work, a better one came along soon enough. Several of them were memorable gems.<P><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32383-2001Sep26.html" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><BR>

<B>CityDance's Power Players</B><BR>Technique, Creativity -- and Politics -- Distinguish This Troupe<BR>By Pamela Squires for The Washington Post<BR> <P>CityDance Ensemble is a Washington story. One of its musicians is a space policy analyst. Another works for Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and the troupe's executive director, Paul Emerson, is a former Capitol Hill defense policy analyst who took his first dance class wearing Dockers and a pinstripe shirt. Saturday at Dance Place, the six-year-old, 18-member company demonstrated the ambition, hard work and competitiveness that drive successful Washingtonians.<P><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12359-2002Jan20.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

CityDance Is Right at Home
By Lisa Traiger for The Washington Post

AT JUST seven years old, CityDance Ensemble is experiencing a growth spurt. This little company that could, founded on a whim and a fancy when choreographer Tara Pierson Dunning presented a group work at a Joy of Motion Dance Project showcase, has been growing like Jack's magic beanstalk. In December, the troupe was invited to St. Petersburg as the opening attraction of the Mussorgsky State Theater's modern dance festival, and it will return to Russia in 2004. In January, Dance Magazine named the company one of "25 to Watch" in a roundup of international dance artists.

This weekend, the troupe scales another height. Thursday night it opened a four-night run at Dance Place with a program dedicated to African American choreographers. This is the first time Washington's most prolific dance presenter has dedicated four consecutive nights to a local troupe.

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FilmWORKS: an art is born
By Jean Battey Lewis for THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Capturing dance on film has come a long way since its early beginnings. Witness the more than three hours of dance on PBS this past Wednesday evening that ranged from documentaries to reasonable facsimiles of live performances.

Using the devices of film and the moving images of dance to create a different, independent art form is much less often explored.

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I've consolidated here this review from January 2003:

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In the Washington Post:

City Dance Ensemble was looking good Sunday at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington.

A great deal of the dancing was on a comfortably professional level. Artistic Director Paul Gordon Emerson wisely chose small-scale works that suited the center's intimate theater, and many of the works were choreographically strong. That's a pretty good batting average. [/quote]

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A Stylish Sendoff for CityDance Stalwart
By Sarah Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 24, 2003; Page C08
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CityDance, Striding Boldly Ahead
By Pamela Squires
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, March 15, 2004; Page C04

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At Strathmore, Troupe Rises to the Occasion

Washington Post
Saturday, February 19, 2005; Page C05
Lisa Traiger

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