Isaac Jones

GHDT’s ‘Cleopatra’ still shines, new season announced

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By John Lyle Belden

The Tarkington seats were half-full, but overflowing with energy from friends, supporters and dance alumni of Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre for the 2025-26 season-ending revival of its powerful version of “Antony and Cleopatra” Friday night.

If you see this as it posts, Saturday, June 6, we encourage you to see this bold take on the Shakespeare historical tragedy this evening at the Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel.

Few things say “exotic” to our minds more than Egypt, and Gregory Glade Hancock with story, choreography and costumes, in collaboration with composer and musician Corey Gabel, take full liberty with that concept in bringing what the Bard adapted from history forward to give an old story a current vibe. The setting is Club Oasis, featuring celebrated drag queen Cleopatra (Thomas Mason), who encounters rock star Marc Antony (guest dancer Isaac Jones), whose passions know no limit or restraint. This complicates things for Antony’s wife Octavia (Abigail Lessaris), the sister of club owner Caesar Octavian (Olivia Payton).

Josie Moody oversees the narrative as Lamprius the Soothsayer and agent of Fate. Antony’s attendants are played by Sophie Jones and Nathalie Boyle; portraying Cleopatra’s attendants and backup dancers are Audrey Springer and Vivien Mickels. GHDT summer interns Caelan Gibbs, McCaleb Hans, Darcy Mraz, and Avery Withers are club dancers and chorus. No venomous asps were harmed.

This story of love, power and ambition taken to tragic ends is perfect for Pride Month with its non-binary approach and features a sensuous pas de deux by the male leads.

Gobel’s highly danceable pop-beat soundtrack with recorded vocals – enhancing rather than narrating the story – is woven perfectly with Hancock’s graceful high-energy visual storytelling. Costumes are colorful and appropriately daring. All this is presented with reliably excellent lighting by Ryan Koharchik.

This production is also notable for being the farewell performance for dancer Thomas Mason, performer for seven seasons as well as contributing choreographer and technical director at The Florence in The Academy of GHDT. His will be big shoes (or bare footprints) to fill.

This ends a season bookended by Corey Gabel collaborations, having started last fall with “The Casket Girls.” He is presently working with Hancock on the opener for 2026-27.

After its annual fundraiser, “Fashion at the Florence,” Sept. 19 at The Tarkington, the first full dance production for Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre will be the premiere of “Salem” by Hancock and Gabel, inspired by the historic witch panic, on Oct. 23-24.

GHDT returns to The Florence for the multicultural “Winterfest” in December, and a revival of the murder mystery with movement, “The Black Dahlia” in February 2027. The following programs at the Tarkington are “Remembrance” in April and “A Night in India” in June.

In addition, four “Melange” series programs are planned, Sept. 12-13 and Nov. 14-15, 2026; and March 13-14 and May 15-16, 2027. As before, set in The Florence, they feature an improvised dance and visual art collaboration with a vocalist who reveals their program on stage. The experience is unique to each performance, with the artwork auctioned at the end.

For all the details, see gregoryhancockdancetheatre.org.

GHDT turns the page on its Saga

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By John Lyle Belden

Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre features modern style with international influences and accessible visual storytelling. This was on full display in “Sagas and Superstitions,” the show that concluded the company’s 26th season, earlier this month at The Tarkington in the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel.

The program featured a couple of premiere pieces. “Don’t Sit at the Corner of the Table,” with choreography and costumes by founder and artistic director Gregory Glade Hancock, is a new work inspired by old superstitions of Eastern Europe (set in Ukraine). The title refers to where a young girl must not sit, or she might never get married. The dance features bold movements and a fair amount of humor and whimsy as three sisters – Abigail Lessaris, Olivia Payton, and Josie Moody – entertain two suitors, portrayed by Thomas Mason and guest performer Isaac Jones.

The other new piece is the choreography debut by GHDT instructor and retiring company member Chloe Holzman. “Pelo Caminho” tells a traditional Brazilian story of a young man (Mason) on a quest to see the King and Queen (Jones and Payton). On the way he befriends the Spirits of the River (Hannah Brown), the Fox (Camden Lancaster), and Thorns (Moody) who aid and teach him. Holzman makes good use of Hancock’s style of flow and form, and the dancers’ long-time camaraderie with her no doubt aided in their flawless performance.

Hancock revived his contemporary telling of “Greek Mythology,” which included all the dancers listed above, including Holzman as well as Audrey Springer, portraying various characters and stories.  He concluded with “The Wedding,” set in Poland and inspired by Roma traditions, performed by the company with Lessaris and Jones as bride and groom.

Brown and Lancaster, as well as Holzman, are retiring from the company, and each got to perform a featured dance from one of their past GHDT performances.

We have always found these shows fascinating and entertaining, and look forward to the coming season, which opens with “Autumn Nights” on Oct. 25-26. For more information, visit gregoryhancockdancetheatre.org.