Annex Dance Company kicked off its 16th season in October looking to expand its programming and mission to bring professional modern dance to Charleston.
“Our season can be captured by the word ‘catapult’,” said Kristin Alexander, Annex’s artistic director and founder.
The company wants to grow its audience and broaden offerings this year with live and digital programming, and new choreography featured in its upcoming dance film and two-city concert tour.
“It feels like we are springboarding into the next phase of the company as we are welcoming new dancers, performing in bigger venues and creating a new dance film,” Alexander said.
Annex Dance Company has come a long way since 2007, the year Alexander founded the company in her home state of Pennsylvania. She moved the company to Charleston in 2010 because of the “strong arts community here,” she said.
“From the start, we had a strong element of wanting to collaborate with other artists, and Charleston felt like the right place for that.”
At the start of 2021, longtime Annex company member Julie Clark stepped into the role of associate director.
“That element of catapulting the company into new heights — it’s also about [Clark] and I,” said Alexander of the transition.
“We are pushing the company forward in a lot of ways, but also, we are pushing each other as artists, which is invigorating … As someone who spent a lot of time doing this alone, to now have someone by my side who challenges and inspires me every time I get in the studio, it’s been amazing.”
In the new year, the company will perform a dance concert in two cities with the premiere Feb. 4 at the Etherredge Center in Aiken followed by a performance Feb. 11 at Charleston’s Sottile Theatre.
And in the spring, Austin-based dance filmmaker and former Annex company member Maggie Bailey will return to Charleston to collaborate with Annex on a dance film. Alexander said the company plans to host a screening of the film once a venue is secured.
The inspiration for the dance film came, in part, from the positive reaction to digital programming during the pandemic.
A 2020 video project called “Small Plates” inspired Annex to make a site-specific dance film, Salt in Soil, shot in 2021 at Botany Bay on Edisto Island. These projects allowed Clark and Alexander to reach new audiences, one of the reasons they said they’re excited to continue creating digital programming.
“The pandemic challenged us to think outside the box,” Clark said.
“Salt in the Soil was a planned stage performance, which became a dance film. We’ve wanted to create a second film ever since, and it’s so exciting to collaborate with a former company member. Maggie’s experience dancing with Annex is really going to enhance our ability to showcase our movement and concept from the rehearsal process to the screen.”
Alexander, who is also a tenured associate professor of dance at the College of Charleston, explained that Annex is invested in not only creating and collaborating on modern dance projects, but also educating dancers.
“We are very invested in two really important communities of dancers — the younger generation of pre-professional dancers who are learning from us in the studio or school space, and then the dancers who want to be working professionally. And our company is invested in that too. We are a company made up of educators,” Alexander said.
Annex’s 16th season opened with a performance at High Wire Distillery in October and will conclude in June after its annual Piccolo Spoleto residency. Beginning in May, College of Charleston students participate in the residency as part of the college’s Stelle di Domani series, presented during Piccolo Spoleto.
“We do curriculum-based residencies in the school system through Engaging Creative Minds. We do workshops at dance studios, where they ask us to come and teach, and the other component is some college residencies,” Alexander said. “The educational component is a huge part of the company.”
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