Amid the biotechs in Kendall Square, a place for dance
By Karen Campbell Globe Correspondent,Updated February 17, 2021, 4:19 p.m.
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Jean Appolon Expressions dancers (from left) Mcebisi Xotyeni, Nadia Issa, Meg McGrath, and Lonni Stanton rehearsed at The Dance Complex @ Canal District Kendall, a 4,000-square-foot retail space gifted to The Dance Complex by Biomed Realty for one year.Erin Clark/Globe Staff
Cambridgeâs Kendall Square is well known as a hotbed for innovation, particularly in biotech. But starting this month, the area is getting an infusion of artistic innovation, too. Cambridgeâs The Dance Complex has opened a new creative space called The Dance Complex @ Canal District Kendall (a.k.a. Complex@Canal) in a 4,000-square-foot retail unit at 650 East Kendall St.
Front Porch Arts Collective actors performed for a packed house at the Central Square Theater. (Courtesy Front Porch Arts Collective)
After staggering losses in the arts sector throughout 2020 due to the pandemic, the city of Boston has awarded $450,000 in COVID-19 relief funding, through an initiative geared toward supporting arts and culture organizations run by Black, indigenous, people of color.
Grantees include the the Front Porch Collective, the Pao Arts Center, Hyde Square Task Force and Jean Appolon Expressions, among others.
Dawn Simmons, artistic director for the Front Porch Collective, said it’s been a tough year, but they’ve pulled through together.
Six bright spots in dance this year
Though live performing is virtually at a standstill, dance hasnât stopped moving in 2020.
By Karen Campbell and Jeffrey Gantz Globe Correspondent,Updated December 18, 2020, 10:01 a.m.
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Addie Tapp and Patrick Yocum in Jerome Robbins s Glass Pieces. Liza Voll/Boston Ballet
As with all the arts, the dance world has been devastated by the pandemic. The art form is fueled by the kinetic energy of bodies in motion, an energy that soars over the footlights to engage an audience with an impact not just artistic, but visceral. The loss of that communal experience between performer and audience has been reverberating painfully for months, and has come with dire economic losses, closures, and cancellations.