Santa Monica College’s innovative and widely praised Synapse Contemporary Dance Theater, co-directed by Jae Lee and Mark Tomasic, will showcase new works created by award-winning faculty and guest artists and up-and-coming student choreographers in a free video presentation starting May 24.
The program will be available for viewing online starting at 7 p.m. May 24. A link at smc.edu//dance/events takes guests directly to the showcase.
The show features Modern, Contemporary, Postmodern, Jazz Funk, Hip Hop, Fusion, and more. The program showcases works by Synapse Co-Artistic Director Jae Lee and faculty choreographers Seda Aybay, Angela Jordan, and Roberta Wolin-Tupas. Synapse welcomes guest artist choreographers Cari Ann Shim Sham, Associate Arts Professor of Dance and Technology at NYU Tisch, and Sorah Yang, recently named one of “25 to Watch in 2021” by Dance Magazine. Also creating new dance works for the performance are student choreographers Ariana Chavez and Leslie Lashinsky.
• SMC dance professor and Synapse Co-Artistic Director Jae Lee will premiere “Nested Memories,” a piece illustrating the layers of memories that reside in our lives.
• SMC dance professor Seda Aybay has created “Hasret,” which is an abstract approach to a well-known Turkish poem “Istanbul’u Dinliyorum” (“I listen to Istanbul”), written by Orhan veli Kanik.
• Synapse guest artist choreographer Sorah Yang has created the hip-hop contemporary fusion piece “Undeniable,” which explores women coming to terms with their power and individuality, and celebrates the journey.
• SMC student choreographer Leslie Lashinsky has created a fantastical dance film, “Zander’s Dream,” filled with color, outrageous costumes, special effects, and even a tortoise.
Synapse Contemporary Dance Theater has a longstanding reputation for artistic excellence and innovation. Since it was founded more than 40 years ago, the student company has performed across the nation, including the Electric Lodge in Venice; the Cast Theater in Hollywood; the Getty Center in Los Angeles; and the American College Dance Association Conference in Arizona, California, Georgia, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Utah.
More information is available at smc.edu/dance or by calling 310-434-3467.
Submitted by Grace Smith