Jane Franklin Dance and Lloyd House Gardens Present Moving Stories

Moving Stories is a movement-based work that is about historical Lloyd House and its Gardens, not as a static landmark, but rather as a place where people of different generations interact. The performance resonates with the landscape and references the site's history.  Lloyd House, built in 1796, has housed many prominent people and is important to the streetscape of Washington Street, part of George Washington Memorial Parkway. The architecture of the building, the people who have lived there, and the changing community surrounding it, makes the location important to ALX275, the City of Alexandria’s 275th Anniversary.

The landscape of the Lloyd House Gardens is defined by areas of soft greenery, unyielding surfaces and negative space.  For this performance, movement interacts with a sound score layered with statements about the landmark’s history and its current role in Alexandria. 

People of all ages may participate in a pre-performance workshop. (Preps)

• In Jane Franklin’s Uncover, dancers' fast-paced movement pushes performers to exit, then rejoin, in an exploration of rhythmic response and group effort.

• Into These Spaces by Kelsey Rohr highlights the building’s history as a boarding school. Energized movement performed by children and company dancers speaks to the relationship between the human body and public space, of change across generations and from different perspectives.

•  Forty+ Project, an ongoing program of Jane Franklin Dance, celebrates the collective creativity of people past the age of 40.  Continuing the idea of change across generations, choreographer Lauren DeVera and community members have come together to create Breathe….Let it Be. 

• Names by Jane Franklin is inspired by ownership, taking hold, shifting or making more, or less, of an entity. Statements about John Lloyd, the building who still bears his name, and early 20th century ownership shapes a dance with exchanging partnerships and weight-sharing bodies

• Ideas of place-making surround Only the Ghosts, by Robert J. Priore.  Pathways stitch together the four performers in harmony or isolate an individual as the others respond.

• Everything settles in Quiet, by Jane Franklin, as ideas of healing and preservation come into play.

• For Now structures the space.  Audience and performers conclude by joining together in the hopeful response about this present moment. 

About Jane Franklin Dance
Jane Franklin Dance partners with music, media, visual artists, and community participants.  Jane Franklin Dance has been presented at multiple venues and festivals and internationally in Mexico. A recipient of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region Creative Communities Award, Jane has developed innovative and collaborative projects combining dancers with the round wall skateboarding community, with a life-size kinetic sculpture, with the architecture of a specific site, with dogs & owners, and with interactive live video and sound for numerous public art projects.  Jane Franklin is a recipient of the American Association of University Women Elizabeth Campbell Award for the Advancement of the Arts in Arlington, Site See Residency, and Special Opportunity Awards from the City of Alexandria as well as other commendations from regional festivals and government agencies.   Jane Franklin Dance repertory features works by a diverse range of choreographers, award-winning and emerging, who create works for the professional artists who serve as company dancers and educators.  Educational programs take place at after school programs and at centers serving older adults.

About Lauren DeVera
Lauren DeVera is a dancer, choreographer, podcaster, dance curator, certified life coach, founder/CEO of The Lion’s Den, a DMV-based dance and wellness community, and daughter to Filipino immigrant parents, residing in Alexandria, Virginia. She has been teaching, performing, and curating in the DC Metropolitan area for over 14 years, with a focus on community building and creating brave spaces for self-expression. Her teaching, performance, & curation credits include The Kennedy Center, BET, the CW Network, Howard Theatre, Dance Place, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Culture Shock DC, World of Dance, Ladies of Hip Hop Festival, and various universities.  Lauren has had the honor to present choreographic works as the 2023 NextLook Resident Artist with The CLARICE at UMD, the 2023 Open Call Presenter with Dance Place, and recently directed and produced a DMV choreographers showcase, as the 2024 Artist Partner at Joe's Movement Emporium. This past June 2024, an excerpt from her “Reclaiming Us” dance film was featured in the Kennedy Center’s “10,000 Dreams” Asian Film Festival!  Lauren’s honored to be choreographing her third piece for the talented and incomparable Jane Franklin Dance’s  Forty+ Project - you’re in for a treat!

About Forty+ Project

Forty+ celebrates the collective creativity of people past the age of 40. Each project features a different choreographer and results in a unique tapestry of collaboration. Forty+ an adjunct and ongoing project of Jane Franklin Dance provides a platform for dancers and choreographers to create in a community of movement.

About Robert J. Priore
Robert J. Priore founded his company PrioreDance in the fall of 2016. He is also very proud to be a founding member of Company | E, where he has had the honor of dancing works by Ohad Naharin, Andrea Miller, Sharon Eyal, Rachel Erdos, Roni Koresh, Marco Cantalupo and Thomas Noone. Robert continues to hone his craft while being the Choreographer-in-Residence for the CityDance Conservatory as well as an Ignite Artist. Robert received a BFA in dance from Point Park University. Robert was a 2015 recipient of the John F. Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project and created a special work for the artists of Company | E, Speak Easy. Speak Easy has been on the road, being presented in collaboration with Company | E, in Russia, Azerbaijan, Cuba and most recently in Ukraine. In 2016, 2017 and 2018 Robert also was named an outstanding fellow in the arts in his home of the District of Columbia. In April of 2017, Robert traveled to Holguin, Cuba to set an original work on the dancers of CoDanza. In Fall of 2017, Robert returned to Holguin with fellow dancer Abby Leithart to perform the premier of Casita with CoDanza at the Vladimir Malakhov Grand Prix, where the piece won the audience choice award. In July of 2018, PrioreDance was chosen to perform Priore’s choreography at the InsideOut Stage at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow. In September 2018, Robert and five dancers returned to Holguin to present an excerpt of Cirque De Nuit for the Vladimir Malakhov Grand Prix. Most recently, Robert was commissioned to create a work for the Mark Twain Prize Award Ceremony, which was nationally televised on PBS mid-November 2018. Robert was awarded the Pola Nirenska Memorial Award in 2019 for outstanding contribution to art in the District of Columbia, which is given to one dance artist per year.

About Kelsey Rohr

Kelsey Rohr (Assistant Artistic Director) started studying dance at Richmond Ballet through their public outreach program. She later graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with a BFA in Dance and minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. She went on to dance with Joshua L. Peugh’s Dark Circles Contemporary Dance and then worked in Geneva, Switzerland with Ballet Junior de Genève and Guilherme Botelho’s Alias Dance Company. She has performed works by Sharon Eyal, Barak Marshall, Angelin Preljocaj, and Roy Assaf. Currently, she enjoys dancing under Robert Priore’s PrioreDance in D.C. and Jane Franklin Dance in Arlington.

Moving Stories is supported in part by a grant from the City of Alexandria, VA through the Office of the Arts and is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.