For the ninth summer, Shepherdstown is transformed July 16–26 into a modern dance festival with dance concerts, discussions, master classes, events for children, and the West Virginia Dance Theater Institute. For two weeks, eight dance companies from New York, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., descend on Jefferson County, living with local families and enjoying the warm welcome from locals.

The Goose Route Dance Festival is known among modern-dance artists nationwide as an intimate and inspiring dance experience that offers them packed houses and supportive audiences. Some of this season’s performers are returning for a second time, staying with the same families with whom they have kept in touch since their first visits.

As a result of the loyalty Goose Route inspires among dance artists, each year festival organizers are able to select dance artists from a tall pile of applications submitted by high-caliber professionals. “This summer’s artists have extensive performance histories nationally as well as internationally,” said Kitty Clark, executive director of the Goose Route Arts Collaborative, which produces the festival. “They have studied and danced with some of the most notable modern dancers in the country, and they teach in some of best dance degree programs in this country.”
Goose Route transforms the second floor of the War Memorial Building in Shepherdstown into a black box theater. During the first weekend, four dance troupes from New York will join Goose Route Dance Company in performances that include Shaken with a Twist, a light-hearted and quirky duet by James Hansen (Rochester, N.Y.) and Back to Tijuca, by Essner Performance Co-op (New York, N.Y.), which was created in Rio de Janeiro in collaboration with Brazilian dancers and set to a score by the Brazilian composer Barbatugues. The Goose Route Dance Company, with Kitty Clark and Ray Shaw, will show two new works, Voyeurs in My Head and Trace. These performances feature improvisation and highly physical choreography, sprinkled with idiosyncratic gestures and space-eating movements.
During the second weekend, performances include Blueprints of Relentless Nature by DanceTactics (New York), a high-velocity work with a pulsing language of flicks, hesitations, lunging dives, and curious catches. Also that weekend is a delightful and funny dance set to 1950s love songs by one of Washington’s preeminent dance companies, CityDance2. Nu Dance Theater of New York performs Elle d’Elles, a physical dialogue between a puppeteer and a dancer—a mother and a daughter—exploring their relationship via the intimate contact between their bodies and a wedding dress. In Coldness and Lightness, choreographed by Ashley Thorndike to music composed by Peter Swendsen, three powerful dancers slice and propel their way through the landscape.
If you are someone who does not go to modern dance performances because you feel like you “don’t get it,” take heart. You are not alone. Goose Route has organized meet-the-artists discussions after matinee performances to help unravel the “mysteries” of dance-making.
But, says Clark, you don’t need any special qualifications to enjoy the performances. “Don’t worry about ‘getting’ every performance,” she said. “Too often people try to attach a literal story to a dance, when such a story does not necessarily exist—even in the choreographer’s mind. Clark urges you to leave the literal interpretation at home, and just sit back and allow yourself to enjoy the emotional, visual, and visceral aspects of dance presented by skillful and creative dance artists.
One audience that has no trouble “getting” modern dance is kids. Dress rehearsals on Fridays are their time. These free shows provide a fun way to expose children to the moving-art world. No one on stage or in the audience gets upset when children talk loudly, stand on their seats, or start dancing during the performances.
In these performances, kids get to explore dance through an interactive dance scavenger hunt. After introducing their dances and dancers, the choreographers demonstrate one movement to the children and give them an assignment to perform every time the movement is repeated in the dance. Like detectives, the children stare at the performers, and each time they recognize the movement, they jump from their chairs and rub their noses—or whatever was assigned for that movement.
To allow your children ages 5 to 9 let loose with their own creative energy, take them to the free movement class offered by visiting artists, Saturday, July 18 at 9:30am at the War Memorial Building. Movement classes are also offered in Martinsburg and Charles Town.
Dance concerts take place Fridays, July 17 and 24 at 7pm; Saturdays, July 18 and 25 at 3pm and 7 pm; and Sundays, July 19 and 26 at 3pm. Tickets are $12 in advance ($10 for students/seniors): $15 at the door ($12 for student/seniors). For information and tickets contact 304-876 6751 or www.gooseroute.org.