CityDance’s global steps

Looking at its travels the past year, it’s easy to think of CityDance Ensemble as a small-

scale United Nations. Setting out from its home base at Strathmore Hall in North Bethesda, the company has performed and taught across the Middle East, from Jordan to Israel to the United Arab Emirates, followed by a swoop down to Chile.

CityDance Ensemble has returned home with an intriguing program that reflects some of its far-flung experiences. It is being performed Thursday and Friday at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

CityDance Artistic Director Paul Gordon Emerson says his company is lucky to be based in Washington at a time when the value of using the arts to break down barriers is being recognized - particularly the wordless arts of music and dance.

Mr. Emerson came to the District years ago to join the Foreign Service because of his interest in cultural exchange, but instead he ended up spending seven years as a congressional aide before finding a role at CityDance, eventually becoming its artistic director.

Nothing if not flexible, he has choreographed and danced himself but now seems concentrated on that early urge to forge a way for countries to find common ground, especially in the most troubled parts of the world.

“All you see about the Middle East is on television,” he notes, “and most of the time, TV doesn’t cover unless there’s something wrong. These people have a rich history stretching back thousands of years, but they are also curious to know about you. You go back to being people - not images on the television screen - and that makes dialogue possible and change possible.

“I’m just back from another week in Israel and Jordan fostering the partnerships that will lead us to go back again this spring,” he says. “When you’re asked to do that by a part of the world that doesn’t necessarily relate to or understand America, the fact that they said, ‘What you’ve done for us is extraordinary, and we hope you’ll come back and continue’ - that’s all you could ask for out of life.”

The State Department told the ensemble to be prepared for Middle Eastern audiences - the children in particular - to be reserved. The company says it instead saw the youngsters go delightfully crazy at the “Jungle Book” shows that had been brought over especially for them.

A surefire light moment on the CityDance program is “Mattress Suite” by Larry Keigwin, whose company made a big splash at the Kennedy Center a week ago.

“We’re very lucky to have a work of his,” Mr. Emerson says. “He is one of the genuine funniest choreographers I’ve ever come across.”

The Kennedy Center program will end with a signature work by artist-in-residence (and rehearsal director) Christopher K. Morgan called “Thirst.”

“Prior to the show, Chris asks, ‘What do you thirst for?’ ” Mr. Emerson says. “Chris has built up this repertoire of people answering a universal question in a dozen languages; it’s part of the show’s soundscape. ‘Thirst’ has been seen on several continents; to hear it in Hebrew, Arabic and English on the same program - it’s startling.”

Another way CityDance prepared for its recent travels, Mr. Emerson says, was to organize a choreographers commission. Out of the 120 responses received, Rachel Erdos from Israel and Alex Neoral from Brazil were singled out.

“[They] had something very fresh, some of the most intriguing work that’s happening internationally. So here are two artists under 30, with major things to say, completely unknown in the United States,” he says. “I think sharing the next generation of talent with an audience at home is kind of why CityDance exists.”

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