Missouri Contemporary Ballet (MCB) has been selected as the Resident Company of the Great Friends Dance Festival 2012. Hosted by Island Moving Company (IMC) under the direction of Miki Ohlsen, this festival runs July 9th-22nd in Newport, RI.

This dance festival is one part of IMC’s Great Friends Touring Project. Each year, IMC hosts a resident company for this festival. In turn, that company will bring IMC out to perform in a collaborative show in their home city. As a result, these companies trade resources to increase audiences and visibility for contemporary ballet, and especially for smaller companies. After completing the residency this July, MCB will formally invite IMC to Columbia to perform a show in March 2013 at the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts.

The Great Friends Dance Festival brings together various small and mid-size companies to perform nightly shows at the Great Friends Meeting House. This historical site is the oldest surviving Quaker meetinghouse in Rhode Island. In addition to IMC and MCB, Providence Ballet Theatre and Janusphere Dance Company will also be performing at this festival.

Guest choreographer John-Mark Owen will be setting a collaborative piece on MCB and IMC. This piece will be performed during the last weekend of shows. This piece will also be performed in the collaborative show between IMC and MCB in March 2013.

For more information about IMC and the Great Friends Touring Project, visit www.islandmovingco.org.

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Founded in 2006, Missouri Contemporary Ballet is Columbia’s resident professional dance company that is committed to creating dance entertainment through the art of contemporary ballet. MCB creates exciting, edgy, hip entertainment to make the experience of live dance an artful and joyful event for all ages.