Shannon Sterne, assistant professor of dance, will perform with her dance collective, the Cleveland Dance Exchange (CDX), in Cleveland Public Theatre’s DanceWorks Series April 9-11.
A single evening-length work in 10 sections, “Top 10” was conceived, scripted, produced and managed by Sterne, who also choreographed one of the dance sections. The production is an ambitious undertaking bringing together 10 choreographers and 16 dancers in a radio-show-style countdown of Billboard Hot 100 hits. But Sterne further increased the complexity of the production through the inclusion of two unique twists: one impacting the creative process and one impacting the performance of the work.
Sterne was initially inspired to create the work several years ago in the wake of the passing of legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was famous for his use of “chance methods” in his choreographic process. Sterne used similar chance methods for her work in two different ways.
Each choreographer was assigned a number—one through 10—corresponding to a ranking on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end charts. They then had to choose a hit from that rankings for each of three decades: the 1960s, the 1980s, and the 2000s, and create a single piece of choreography that could be performed to each of the three songs.
The decade of hits the dancers actually perform to will be determined by audience vote each night of the performance. Potentially, the dancers will perform to the same decade of hits each night, however, audience vote could shift each night requiring the dancers perform each night to a different playlist of songs.
“Top 10” is part of a double-bill with Ohio Dance Theatre, and will take place at Gordon Square Theatre (6415 Detroit Ave.). All performances begin at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets may be purchased by calling the CPT box office at 216.631.2727 or at cptonline.org.