{"id":1484,"date":"2017-04-06T00:17:42","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T00:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/arts-culture\/rhetoracle-dance-company-celebrates-10-years-of-passion-and-performance\/"},"modified":"2017-04-06T00:17:42","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T00:17:42","slug":"rhetoracle-dance-company-celebrates-10-years-of-passion-and-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/art\/rhetoracle-dance-company-celebrates-10-years-of-passion-and-performance","title":{"rendered":"RhetOracle Dance Company Celebrates 10 Years of Passion and Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Photos by Asia Morris of RhetOracle dancers rehearsing <\/em>Repertory Reimagined (RE) at MMSdance studio in Long Beach.<\/em><\/p>\n

Long Beach-based RhetOracle Dance Company is celebrating 10 years of bringing innovative contemporary dance to Southern California and has organized a repertory show, but with a twist.<\/p>\n

Voted Best Hidden Cultural Treasure by the Post\u2019s readers in our 2012 Best of Long Beach competition, the company is truly a Long Beach gem, made up of 15 passionate dancers, a third of which have been with the company since its inception in 2006.<\/p>\n

Repertory Reimagined (RE)<\/em>, to be held this Saturday and Sunday at the Martha B. Knoebel Dance Theater next to the Walter Pyramid, plays with the traditional idea of bringing past performances to the stage.<\/p>\n

Instead of simply taking the group\u2019s best dances and making a show of it, RE<\/em> will feature revisited and reworked dances originally choreographed during the company\u2019s early years of existence, exploring the intersections between works from the past and RhetOracle\u2019s current practice.<\/p>\n

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\u201c[…]I know that the artist that I am now is not the same artist that I was 10 years ago, so it was crazy watching some of these old dances and thinking, \u2018I would never do that now[…],\u2019\u201d Nate Hodges, RhetOracle\u2019s founder and \u201chead honcho\u201d, told the Post. \u201cSo we got to talking about this idea of, well, what if we took these really good ideas and revisited them with our newer aesthetic, with the aesthetic we work in right now?\u201d<\/p>\n

One example includes RhetOracle\u2019s very first piece, titled “Debut”, which was originally choreographed by Hodges and has now been reimagined by him. The new version is a debut in itself, an acknowledgement of the company\u2019s humble beginnings and also an introduction to their newly evolved way of working together.<\/p>\n

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Founder Nate Hodges.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the way that we work [now] is also very different,\u201d Hodges said. \u201cIt\u2019s much more collaborative, there\u2019s more workshopping, it\u2019s less of me coming in and being like, \u2018We\u2019re going to do this, we\u2019re going to do that,\u2019 regimented and to the music, and more, \u2018Let\u2019s experiment with this, let\u2019s play with that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Another example includes RhetOracle\u2019s 2008 dance, \u201cThe Ties,\u201d created by Rio Liu, exploring the relationship between a couple living in a post-apocalyptic world. Recreated by Bryana Zaragoza for RE<\/em>, what was originally a duet now shows three different \u201ccouples\u201d expressing isolated responses to living in a caustic, albeit imagined, environment as the last people on earth.<\/p>\n