Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia Performing Arts Center will present the Joe Goode Performance Group, a groundbreaking dance-theater troupe, on Feb. 4 and 5 in the Fine Arts Theatre located at 255 Baldwin St. The award-winning company will perform a new work titled “The Rambler,” which premiered in 2011.
Based in San Francisco and founded in 1986 by choreographer Joe Goode, the performance group uses text, voice and high velocity movement to create thoughtful and groundbreaking pieces. The group’s work touches on social issues—including gender, race and sexuality—with the idea of illuminating and investigating in order to stimulate questions and conversations.
JGPG has received multiple awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council, and the company has been honored with the Isadora Duncan Dance “Izzie” Award for both choreography and performance and the New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for choreography. The company tours regularly throughout the U.S. and also has performed in Europe, Canada, Africa and the Middle East.
“The Rambler” was choreographed and directed by Goode to original music composed by Jesse Olsen Bay. In his notes on the piece, Goode writes, “The Rambler is the classic story of the journey. Not the kind of journey that comes out of a mission or a goal, but the result of a restless, peripatetic soul who can’t stay put. … Any way you look at it, the rambler is a romantic figure-the wanderer who finds no perfect solace in any place or person, the rugged individual who wanders off into the sunset with no forwarding address.”
Show times are Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 5 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $34 to $39 with special discounts for UGA students. For tickets, see http://tickets.perfcenter.uga.edu/single/eventDetail.aspx?p=645 or call the Performing Arts Center box office at 706/542-4400 or toll free at 888/289-8497.
The Joe Goode Performance Group is presented in cooperation with the UGA department of dance, Dance Repertory Project and the department of theatre and film studies. The performances are funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Georgia Council for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the UGA Parents and Families Association, UGA Alumni Association, Willson Center for Humanities and Arts and National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts.