Commotion Dance Theater
*The event has already taken place on this date: Sun, 09/14/2025
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Commotion Dance Theater returns to Fringe with entertaining and evocative dances that incorporate live music, poetry, and video! Performances are at MuCCC, Tuesday, September 9 at 7:00 pm and Sunday, September 14 at 3:30 pm. Tickets are $15 and are on sale now at www.rochesterfringe.com. Laurie MacFarlane will perform Like White Hair, a solo set to a poem by Bob Hart. Using the poem as a score, the dance explores the fantastic landscape of Hart’s imagination. Lost and Found, directed by MacFarlane, is a quartet that uses movement and song to create a space filled with laughter, surprise, and shadow. Ruben T. Ornelas will offer dances to the music of Bach and Beethoven, performed by violinist Cynthia Qiyue He on Sept 9th, and pianist Kevin Wang on Sept. 14th. Ornelas will also present dances inspired by the contemporary Canadian composer-musician François Houle which incorporate video projection by artist Mitch Goldstein. Dancers include Nanako Horikawa Mandrino, Alaina Olivieri, Donetta Tchoroleev, Ishmael Walker, MacFarlane, and Ornelas. Commotion Dance Theater specializes in multi-disciplinary, movement-based works, offering “a light-hearted performance that required zero effort to enjoy” and “a very different type of dance performance” (City Magazine). Under the direction of long-time creative partners Laurie MacFarlane and Ruben T. Ornelas, Commotion has appeared locally at MuCCC, the Avon Opera House, Writers and Books, and the Karpeles Manuscript Museum in Buffalo. This is their ninth appearance at the Fringe. Tickets are available online at rochesterfringe.com; via phone at 585-957-9837 (additional fees apply); in person at the One Fringe Place box office at the corner of Main & Gibbs; or at the door at MuCCC, 142 Atlantic Avenue, Rochester, NY. All programs are subject to change.
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