Kittery, ME- On Friday, September 19 at 7:30 p.m. Hio Ridge Dance returns to The Dance Hall to perform their newest collaborative work, "Placeholders," as part of their ongoing exploration of dance and movement in community. Hio Ridge Dance is the platform for the creative and community building work of Cookie Harrist and Delaney McDonough. Calling rural Denmark, Maine their home, the choreographers use their quiet surroundings to focus on the dance ahead.

Since its formation in 2013, Hio Ridge Dance has created original performances with collaborators of all abilities, both local and from away. As permanent artists-in-residence at the Denmark Arts Center, the pair have constant space with which to work and share. They have hosted emerging artists of diverse media, such as Li Cata, Caity Richards, Grovy Perryman, Dead Night, Sam Deeran and Michael K. Harrist, for DANCECATIONS, Hio Ridge’s particular brand of collaborative residency-vacations. Locally, the two have built dances at Fryeburg Academy, Wyonegonic Camps, and Nurture Through Nature Retreat Center. For summer 2014, the Denmark Arts Center, with support from the Maine Arts Commission and the Maine Humanities Council, commissioned the dancers to make an evening length work about Denmark, Maine. For Placeholders, Cookie and Delaney collaborated with five young Maine dancers and filmmaker Jamie Hook to reimagine Denmark haunts: a cattle barn, Jimbob’s Place, Beaver Pond, and the old grange hall (now the Denmark Arts Center).

The artists have toured their work significantly in Maine and beyond, visiting Eastport Arts Center (ME), Waterman’s Community Center (ME), Franco-American Heritage Center (ME), The Dance Hall (ME), Sophia Cleary’s REHEARSAL (NY), AUNTS (NY), Spoke the Hub (NY), Green Street Studios (MA), and others. They have taught improvisation and composition workshops at Colby College, Bates College and Marlboro College. Hio Ridge Dance is a New England States Touring (NEST) artist, part of NEFA’s fee support program.

Hio Ridge Dance is determined to connect dancers near and far to available space in Maine. Cookie and Delaney’s collaboration emerged and persists from the mutual need to dedicate their daily work to generating art and community side by side.

Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door and can be purchased at www.thedancehallkittery.org and at RiverRun Bookstore Wallingford Square, Kittery. 

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