‘Dance on the Lawn’ returns to NJ for 3rd year

The Dance on the Lawn Festival featuring local New Jersey and New York-based dance companies will return on Saturday, September 10 to the front lawn of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Montclair, NJ. Now in its third year, the free festival will run from 3 to 5 pm.

Dance on the Lawn will present NJ dance companies like Carolyn Dorfman Dance, Randy James’ 10 Hairy Legs, Maurice Chestnut’s Dance Therapy and Donna Scro’s Freespace Dance. New York companies include Keigwin + Company and ZEST Collective. Plus, there will be a new work by Troy Powell, artistic director of Ailey II, presented as part of the lineup.

Kyle Marshall has been announced as Dance on the Lawn’s 2016 Emerging Commissioned NJ Choreographer, which grants him the opportunity to present a new work at the festival. Marshall currently dances with Doug Elkins Choreography Etc., Tiffany Mills Company and 10 Hairy Legs. As a choreographer, he’s curious how histories, cultural movements and personal experiences dictate how people create social groups and interact with their environments. His work has been previously performed at the Dumbo Dance Festival, Movement Research at Judson Church, Dixon Place, Triskelion Arts, Greenspace, Upstart Festival at BAX, Rutgers University and the Dance+ Festival in Portland, Oregon.

Dance on the Lawn was established by Montclair resident Charmaine Warren in 2014 to increase New Jersey’s exposure to dance. The festival brings together professional and emerging companies, plus students of dance from around the state, all to perform in a community setting. This year’s NJ schools include Grooves Unlimited Dance Studio (Livingston); Kathy Costa’s DanceWorks & Company (Montclair); Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts’ Performance Workshop Ensemble (Montclair); Nancy Turano’s New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble (Summit); and American Repertory Trainees (Princeton.)

To see the full festival lineup for 2016, visit www.danceonthelawn.org.

Photo: Festival attendees watch Dance on the Lawn in 2015. Photo by Tony Turner.