Thursday, July 22, 2021
The D.C. area’s premier contemporary ballet company — The Chamber Dance Project — has brought back live dance with four world premieres including “Tear the Edge” to the ballroom of the Perry Belmont House and to the Washington National Cathedral. The Georgetowner was able to see the Perry Belmont House performance, reveling in the gorgeous atmosphere of the circa 1900s Beaux-Art mansion on New Hampshire Ave in northwest.
The Chamber Dance Project performs with a D.C.-based string quartet, a decision founder Diane Coburn Bruning wholeheartedly embraces. “The quartet is right on stage with us,” she said. “A lot of companies use canned music but I believe the origins of music and dance are together.”
Chamber Dance ended up at Perry Belmont House when they started looking for alternate places that were a bit smaller and more intimate than their typical large theaters. Perry Belmont House was looking to bring back live music and dance to the venue. The night ended with a champagne reception for the Chamber Dance Project company and the audience.
The Washington National Cathedral performance was originally supposed to be outdoors but got moved indoors due to the weather. “It was a magnificent experience for dancers and musicians,” Coburn Bruning said. “Typically, we perform close up in theaters of 400 to 500 — this time we were more spread out, the sound was amplified and the lighting was just godly.”
Coburn Bruning added that the response they received was “pretty huge” and one of the best parts was that most of the people who attended the cathedral performance had never seen the Chamber Dance Project perform before.
As we move into the fall, the organization will air a series of dance films they’ve made since the pandemic began at The Kennedy Center’s REACH venue on October 7.
More information on the Chamber Dance Project can be found here.
