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Dogtown Presenter's Series - CLAVES UNIDOS "IT TAKES A LANGUAGE"

Dogtown Dance Theatre presents the second annual Dogtown Presenters Series starting Friday, September 15, 2017, through Sunday, September 24, 2017. The Presenters Series is a two-week fall celebration that highlights the independent artists and organizations rehearsing and teaching at Dogtown, and for the 2017 Series, Kevin LaMarr Jones African-Caribbean community dance collective, CLAVES UNIDOS, has been invited to exhibit six professionally-produced performances and master-level classes to the Richmond community at 109 W 15th St. in Manchester.

The performances title for the 2017 Dogtown Presenters Series is Ancestral Memories: It Takes A Language, and it is a coming of age story with a globally-African soundtrack. Through dance, Artistic Director of African-Caribbean based dance collective, CLAVES UNIDOS, Kevin Lamarr Jones calls upon familiar African American imagery to provide a snapshot of the experiences that all humans share around the world. Featuring music from Guatemala, Brazil, Cuba, and the United States, CLAVES UNIDOS creates an universal experience through dance and imagery. Jones approach to It Takes A Language involves his choreographic pedagogy; he presents a new paradigm of dance that is genre-bending, beyond categorization and culturally-imposed limits. In the 2nd annual Dogtown Presenters Series production, CLAVES UNIDOS will demonstrate the importance of the African influence of music and dance in our daily lives, reveling in how we continue to inherit from its treasures of culture, spirit, and community. Stories such as Ancestral Memories: It Takes A Language, therefore, can be recited regardless of language and origin.

Jones and CLAVES UNIDOS will also offer free community workshops specialized in the African diaspora on Saturday Sept. 16 and 23 at 10:30AM, with a final Bomba workshop on Tuesday Sept. 26 at 7PM. All dancers in the Richmond area are encouraged to join Dogtown and CLAVES UNIDOS for these amazing workshops and a chance to dive deeper into the story of It Takes a Language.

Dogtown Dance Theatre strives to support all artists who are established, or rising, and seek to present new and exciting ways to the give back to the Richmond community. The Dogtown Presenters Series is an exemplary achievement in supporting this mission by providing Dogtown artists the opportunity to create work while avoiding the financial obstacles of performance and production.