Well, that masters’ concert in dance given last May at the University of Arizona went so well, graduate student collaborators Claire Hancock and Ashley Bowman decided they would start their own dance company. In Tucson.
“With our masters concert, we felt like we had launched a whole project,” Hancock said. That concert had barely left the building when these two were making more plans. Their new dance company would be called the Art.If.Act Dance Project. It would include elements of theater and film. There would be music drawn from the old European art repertoire, and all the choreography would be their own.
In concept, Art.If.Act has four core members, Tucson Symphony Orchestra members Benjamin Nisbet and Carla Ecker working together with Bowman and Hancock. Nisbet is the symphony’s assistant concert master. Ecker is the symphony’s associate concert master. Nisbet is also Bowman’s husband.
“We want the concept of the company to unite the very old and the very new,” Hancock added, extending the eclectic nature of their plan. It was the old and new idea that contributed to their Art.If.Act name.
Nearly 20 years ago Tucson got the world’s attention when the locally based Orts Theatre of Dance pioneered its trapeze choreography. Now this new company Art.If.Act Dance Project appears set to raise the dance bar a little higher in its own way.
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