Four off the Floor

While helpful for living our everyday lives, gravity seems like a curse for dancers. When they jump and leap away from the surface of the stage, gravity is right there, pulling them back down again. Yet dancers defy this force of nature all of the time — and sometimes they even go to extreme lengths to do so. Take Monica Newsam for instance. This local modern dancer not only will be showing grace on the ground this Friday and Saturday (April 3 and 4), but she will also be exhibiting ease of movement in the air during her aerial performance, which is a part of Four: A Dance Collaboration. In addition, this ANNONYArts dance concert features works by Summer Beasley, Nicki Tipton Tallent and Dawn Karlovsky (pictured) as well as live music, thanks to Tracy Andreotti and the loveably bizarro Tory Z. Starbuck. Tickets to these gravity-defying, awe-inspiring, dancetastic evenings cost $10 to $14 (at 314-721-0052), and performances are held at 8 p.m. at the Lee Auditorium at the Missouri History Museum (Lindell Boulevard and DeBaliviere Avenue); learn more at www.annonyarts.org.
Fri., April 3; Sat., April 4, 2009