Art Chowder January | February, Issue 25 | Page 36

Khambatta Dance Company performance at the Seattle International Dance Festival, 2019
photo: Marcia Davis
T
he department’s program Dance
Presents! came about as the result of
the new endowment, which enables
Gonzaga to bring professional dance to
Spokane while increasing opportunities
for theatre and dance students to gain
hands-on experience working with
professional dance productions. “The
reason it’s a big deal,” says Ostersmith,
“is because there is no presenting
organization in our region.” She’s right.
Unlike the situation with the short-lived
Spokane Ballet Company of the 1980s,
the center of the Inland Northwest now
has a presenting entity and a permanent
performance space!
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ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE
As a sort of first installment, in
November 2019 Dance Presents!
brought Khambatta Dance Company
and Forthun+Rome Dance Theater to
perform in concert with the Gonzaga
University Repertory Dance Company.
Khambatta Dance Company, initially
founded by Cyrus Khambatta at New
York University in 1986, became a
formal performing and touring company
in 1990, eventually moving to Seattle.
CarliAnn Forthun and Ethan Rome,
both dancers with Khambatta Dance
Company, also create independent works
of their own. Together, Khambatta
and Forthun+Rome represent the high
end of contemporary dance, merging
athleticism with artistic excellence.
It was a great chance for the Gonzaga
Repertory Dance Company to perform
Forthun+Rome’s choreography
alongside them, truly an opportunity that
doesn’t come along every day.
“Dance Presents! will now happen
every November,” says Ostersmith,
“because of the endowment. We will
hopefully always include things like
workshops and class visits as part of
the programming. So yes, this year
the master class is happening as an
opportunity for Gonzaga dance students
and the dance community to get to
partake in a master class with these
wonderful artists.”