Rainbow Dance Theatre 

The Repertory

Melt

Inspired by the current climate change crisis, Melt pays homage to the beauty and wonder of our fragile planet, from its majestic glaciers and icebergs to its gentle streams and rolling ocean waves.  Dancing in front of a breathtaking, constantly morphing projected backdrop created by artist Scott Grimm, the dancers become part of the environment as the projected elements fall on costumes specially designed to serve both as dancewear and projection screen.  In addition to its environmental inspiration, Melt explores the idea of “melting” on many other levels, from the tangible to the intangible, the physical to the metaphysical through exacting ensemble dancing set to a classical music score.  An opening solo features a unique “light” costume created in collaboration with designer Sandra Hedgepeth using fiber optic fabric.

Man of my Dreams

The hilarious Man of my Dreams literally takes traditional ballet for a ride on scooters and a “Segway”.  It features RDT principal dancer Latoya Lovely as a woman dreaming of her perfect man.  This outlandish dream takes on a surrealistic humor as the wedding party (each dancer clad as half bridesmaid, half groomsman) performs “ballet” while traversing the stage on scooters and the groom performs an outrageous, nearly impossible duet with a member of the wedding party on a “Segway”.  The dream continues in Alice-in-Wonderland fashion as the bride and groom grow to amazing proportions to dance a “pas de deux” culminating in a surprising finale where groomsmen become footballs, bridesmaids are linesmen, and the groom falls from the “sky” into the outstretched arms of his astonished bride. 

Fantasy for Strings

Projection artist Scott Grimm collaborates again with RDT to produce a visual feast in Fantasy for Strings which takes its title both from the beautiful violin music to which it is set and the myriad 2-inch thick “strings” which hang throughout the stage space.  Grimm creates a forest of light with projections which hit only the dangling ropes through which the dancers sometimes lyrically, sometimes comically move.  The centerpiece of Fantasy is a gravity-defying duet performed on “tissue” which at times wraps, swings or entwines the two dancers, while at other times it is the vehicle for seemingly effortless feats of strength and daring high above the stage. 

Mixed Bag

Mixed Bag presents a sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant look at humanity and its overwhelming production of and infatuation with garbage. Garbage bags are used as both set and costume pieces that create mythic garbage bag monsters, models wearing garbage bag haute couture, and an otherworldly landscape of garbage bag walls, pillows and birds.  Pop cans and bottles become plumage for two men, skins for a writhing line of “snakes”, and ultimately the entire body for a ten foot tall twenty-first century “man” puppet.   

Big Bang

In Big Bang, illusion is employed to create a dark “sea” where creatures float past, in and around each other while slowly becoming more and more complex.  As dawn emerges, dancers in twos and threes become a wide range of animals, both known and unknown.  Dinosaurs fight to the death, spiders crawl about, elephants stampede, and apes quizzically investigate the new bipedal creature in this ever-changing world.  Combining a tour-de-force of pull-out-the-stops dancing with unique partnering and the mystery of illusion, Big Bang delivers both an entertaining and artistically rendered view of evolution to audiences of all ages.

Light Flight

Light Flight combines high-powered choreography and life-like puppetry with the latest electro-luminescent wire technology - the audience will literally watch dancers fly and light dance through space!  A darkened stage becomes host to creatures of light wearing costumes constructed from electro-luminescent wire, from a caterpillar metamorphosing into a butterfly, to “humanoids” flying through space. 

The Roots of Hip Hop

Through dynamic performances, intriguing vignettes, and audience involvement the performers trace the history of African-Americans from their home in Africa through their days of slavery up to the present, thus illustrating in a tangible way how traditions retain their connection to the past while adapting to new cultural influences.  The program includes RDT’s urban ode, Street Suite, its popular One Village, Many Tribes and Light Flight, described with the above repertory,  as well as several traditional West African dances. Popping and locking, club, freestyle, and break dancing are all featured in the Hip Hop dances included in the first act of the concert.  Additional vignettes illustrate voguing, hamboning, and stepping. Audience participation throughout the show and a fast-moving pace keep young viewers engaged, while the informative history and highly-charged dance performances add another layer of interest for adult audience members.

The Roots of Hip Hop can be also be presented in a one-hour format which includes dance performances, verbal narrative and audience participation and can be performed in a variety of “low-tech” venues including gymnasiums, outdoor stages and smaller auditoriums.