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Friday, July 25, 2025

She Too: A dance tribute to legacy, continuity, and community

by

2 days ago
20250723

From June 27 to 29, the stage of Queen’s Hall pulsed with move­ment, mem­o­ry, and mean­ing as the As­tor John­son Reper­to­ry Dance The­atre (AJRDT) pre­sent­ed She Too, a pow­er­ful week­end of per­for­mances root­ed in the themes of con­ti­nu­ity, cre­ativ­i­ty, and com­mu­ni­ty.

The pro­duc­tion fea­tured 11 dance pieces, in­clud­ing four cap­ti­vat­ing works from guest artistes, the Los Alami­tos Bal­let The­atre (LABT) of Cal­i­for­nia. To­geth­er, the two com­pa­nies of­fered au­di­ences a dy­nam­ic and emo­tion­al­ly rich dance ex­pe­ri­ence that ho­n­oured the vi­sion­ary spir­it of As­tor John­son, the late chore­o­g­ra­ph­er and founder of the reper­to­ry com­pa­ny.

For John­son, dance was not just per­for­mance—it was sto­ry­telling with stay­ing pow­er. He cham­pi­oned the reper­to­ry style, a be­lief that cer­tain chore­o­graph­ic works, like mean­ing­ful sto­ries, gain res­o­nance and depth through rep­e­ti­tion. Re­turn­ing to fa­mil­iar pieces, sea­son af­ter sea­son, gives dancers, chore­o­g­ra­phers, and au­di­ences the space to grow—to­geth­er. “She Too” em­bod­ied this phi­los­o­phy.

The evening opened with a mov­ing trib­ute to Leah Gor­don, a beloved dancer whose re­cent pass­ing left a void in the lo­cal dance com­mu­ni­ty. The homage was heart­felt and fit­ting, set­ting a re­flec­tive tone for the rest of the pro­gramme.

Chore­og­ra­phy through­out the week­end spanned a wide emo­tion­al and styl­is­tic spec­trum, show­cas­ing works by As­tor John­son, Al­lan Bal­four, Loris Beck­les, and Son­ja Du­mas, as well as LABT’s Ri­ley Parish, and the cre­ative duo David and Re­nee Kim. Each piece stood on its own, yet col­lec­tive­ly wove a nar­ra­tive of shared artis­tic vi­sion across cul­tures and gen­er­a­tions.

Part­ner­ships like that be­tween AJRDT and LABT speak to the en­dur­ing rel­e­vance of John­son’s ideals—artis­tic ex­change, cre­ative ex­cel­lence, and the be­lief that dance can bridge dis­tances, both phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al.

With She Too, the As­tor John­son Reper­to­ry Dance The­atre didn’t just stage a show—they re­in­forced a lega­cy, and re­mind­ed us that in dance, as in life, the sto­ries we choose to retell are the ones that shape who we be­come.


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