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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Sarus Festival Takes Dance Into the World

By Megan V. Williams

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/whqr/local-whqr-629600.mp3

Wilmington, NC – The Sarus Festival brings original modern dance works at some unusual locations this weekend, everywhere from the sand at Wrightsville Beach to the Wilmington Farmers Market and the reflecting pool at UNCW.

Festival founder Karola Luttringhaus says the beach just made a nice fit for her vision of an international festival, gathering companies from Germany, Israel and around the US.

Luttringhaus focused the festival on site-specific outdoor works, saying she hopes by going outside, audiences will look at modern dance, and their surroundings, in new ways.

Unlike in the theatre, "here you take the piece and you take the dancers into a world and you either use it the way it exists or you see how you can change it and show aspects of it that people maybe don't normally look at," she said.

In Luttringhaus' eyes, being outside can also change how audiences experience the performers.

"If you're at the beach and the performer is jumping and running right next to you, they're real, you know, they're really there," she said. "It's a little bit of a different experience. I think it's very exciting."

Luttringhaus says that if this debut Sarus Dance Festival is a success, she hopes to expand to a larger program of performances and classes in coming years.

The Sarus Festival runs through Monday with free performances around the area.
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Find more information and a complete schedule at the festival's website.

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