PRIME presented by Jane Franklin Dance and Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association at the Athenaeum

Houseless by Jane Franklin is danced to a poem of the same name by Bennie Herron. “Herron’s verse style is informed in part by the socially conscious Hip Hop artists of the 1990s and poets of the Black Arts Movement of the late 1960s, among myriad other sources.”

Element by Christopher Saunders is performed by three male dancers and explores shades of masculinity and gender expectation.

In Ryan Carlough’s Place Holder, four dancers find a place, upstage center, as a focal point for exchange and compromise. The piece is danced to music by Hoyo-Mix, a team of composers who create evocative music for the Chinese video game developer miHoYo.

Dressed Up by Kelsey Rohr flirts with aggression, sensuality, and passion. Inspired by the work of visual artist Donna McCullough from the NVFAA Athenaeum exhibit “Women’s Work,” it is danced to “Turkish Lady Face” by The Underscore Orkestra.

Lost Stories, by Jane Franklin, draws on the experiences of losing an item, person, or even a place in line, especially when the impact of the occurrence was meaningful. Performed by an intergenerational cast, stories layer recollections and connect to similar shared experiences that translate across time and memory.

Prime journeys through the visual art of exhibiting artist Christine Ruksensas-Burton, whose “paintings are conversations of colors inspired by her homeland (Australia) as well as modern art, minimalism, modernist architecture, and design.” Jane Franklin’s work positions solo dancers in conversation with color, duets in conjunction with line, and trios in hard-edge abstractions of color and mood.