Lydia Johnson Dance @ Newport

Rehearsal photo: dancers Kerry Shea and Eric Williams

Lydia Johnson Dance have been appearing at the Great Friends Dance Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. The Company presented Lydia’s intimate 2005 work, IN CONVERSATION. This piece, set to Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto, was the first work of Lydia’s that I ever encountered…and from there my admiration for her choreography, musical choices and wonderful dancers has grown exponentially over the ensuing years.

Above: dancers Laura DiOrio and Anthony Bocconi in the studio

The Festival performances of Lydia’s IN CONVERSATION drew a very positive review:

“Another visiting dance company – Lydia Johnson Dance from New
York and New Jersey – provided a lovely romantic and classical mood as
two couples danced contemporary pas de deux to Philip Glass’s  
Violin Concerto. Further defining the classicism of the dance was the
attire – the two men in long black pants and tops, the females in white
and wearing halter tops. The couples displayed, seemingly without effort, slow motion pirouettes that lifted lightly over heads and backs, and
graceful, precise coordinated movements that extended even to the the
fingers and wrists.

The artistry of
this group was truly breathtaking and must be seen to be appreciated.
The lifts, swirls,   leaps, turns, falls, risings and meldings were performed
with such athleticism and grace that watching the changing
geometry of limbs it seemed as though Da Vinci anatomy sketches had come
alive to dance.”
~ Sandra Matuschka
The Newport Daily News

Lydia Johnson Dance will return to the Great Friends Dance Festival to perform NIGHT OF THE FLYING HORSES on July 25th, 26th and 27th. Ticket information here.