Ringing in the new year, Dance at the Odyssey festival begins on January 11, 2025 and runs through February 16, 2025 at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in West Los Angeles with a different work featured every weekend . Curated by series co-founder Barbara Müeller-Wittmann, this six-week festival celebrates contemporary dance and offers new works by unconventional companies and independent dance artists. Artists whose work is featured in this annual event are Alejandro Perez and Gretchen Ackerman, Brandon Mathis, Ellen Smith Ahern, Boroka Nagy (Re:born Dance Interactive), Spenser Theberge, and Gheremi Clay (Clay Collective).
LADF – Gretchen Ackerman – Photo by Denise Leitner.
Dance at the Odyssey Schedule
- Jan. 11 and Jan 12 (Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.): Losing the truth of the thing, choreographed and performed by Alejandro Perez and Gretchen Ackerman. What is real? What is imagined? Perez and Ackerman return to the Odyssey stage with a piece about how memory is a confabulation system.
- Jan. 16 through Jan. 19 (Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.): Choreographer Brandon Mathis presents Vitellaria Paradoxa,* a vigorous 50-minute exploration of ritual, set to a score of conscious-altering jazz, that asks, “what does it mean to become comfortable in one’s body?” (*Content warning: nudity and the burning of sage)
- Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 (Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.): Dance and sound emerge from a cardboard shelter, blossoming into a landscape of quilts in Shell, choreographed by Ellen Smith Ahern. Known for combining nature, storytelling and movement to create a lush, dream-expanding sensory experience, Ahern partners with local artists to explore what it means to listen and communicate through diverse bodies and voices for this work-in-progress. A conversation with the dancers follows.
Re:BorN Interactive Dance Company – Boroka Nagy – Photo by Skye Schmidt
- Jan. 31 through Feb. 2 (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.): Re:born Dance Interactive and choreographer Boroka Nagy present Home, set to an eclectic soundtrack combining the soulful rhythms of Leon Bridges with the atmospheric sounds of Sigur Rós and the elegant classics of Satie and Brahms. The work reflects the spaces we inhabit, the people we cherish or leave behind, the fragile beauty of connection, and the universal yearning for “Home Sweet Home.”
- Feb. 7 through Feb. 9 (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 7 p.m.): Created and performed by choreographer Spenser Theberge with live sound composition by Maxwell Transue, Intimates is a virtuosic, multidisciplinary work-in-progress about searching for a true sense of self—a real-time search for true identity, live and on stage.
- Feb. 14 through Feb. 16 (Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.): The recently founded Clay Collective is an eclectic group of artists representing a plethora of genres. An exciting evening of hip hop fusion and contemporary dance curated by choreographer Gheremi Clay.
(L-R) Maxwell Transue, Spenser Theberge in “Intimates” – Photo Michael C. Palma
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WHAT: Dance at the Odyssey Festival
WHEN: January 11 through February 16, 2025 with a different work featured every weekend.
WHERE: The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles, 90025.
TICKETS: All tickets are $25, with an additional $3 per ticket fee if using a credit card. For more information and to purchase tickets, call (310) 477-2055 or go to OdysseyTheatre.com.
For more information about the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, please visit their website.
Written and compiled by Jeff Slayton from Dance at the Odyssey press release.
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