Graphic: A Walk/Dance Tour of Downtown Murals

On two consecutive Sundays, May 15 and May 22, 2022, Cincinnati dance company Pones, Inc., in collaboration with five local dance partners, will mount a revival performance of Graphic, their 2016 Fringe Festival production.

Graphic features an interactive dance experience set together with a walking tour of Cincinnati’s iconic downtown ArtWorks murals.

The dance company Pones was founded in 2008 to use dance for social change. Site-specific performances are created through a fusion of movement and dance with other art forms and with performers using their bodies to speak their minds.

Graphic will be an “add-on performance option” of Cincinnati Ballet’s Bold Moves Festival, an immersive dance experience from May 12 to 22 featuring rotating mainstage productions, with Victoria Morgan directing her final production. However, Graphic is purely a piece by Pones and five other collaborating companies presenting individual vignettes at each mural.

The local dance companies performing along with Pones include:

•  Heroes Rise Street Dance Academy: a school for the study of street dance movement

•  Exhale Dance Tribe: a dance company rooted in rhythmic storytelling leaving an emotional imprint on its audience

• Yarroway Productions: a trio of artists -- dancer, painter, and musician

• Revolution Dance Theatre: Cincinnati’s only African American Dance Company in residence at the Aronoff Center for the Arts

• Q-Kidz Dance Team: a group improving the lives of Cincinnati youth through dance instruction and educational programs designed to build character, confidence, and teamwork

Using murals as a backdrop, the companies will explore issues and subjects vital to each company and to the Cincinnati community. 

Kim Popa, Executive Director of Pones, Inc., is excited about the enthusiasm of so many local companies coming together and showcasing the wide range of dance diversity that Cincinnati offers. “We all agree [the event] has the potential to be the start of an annual coming together of the Cincinnati dance community,” Popa enthuses.

The following murals will comprise the tour:

• Visionary Reality Threshold
• Homecoming (Blue Birds)
• Self-Portrait, Elizabeth Nourse and Still Life
• Black Box
• Vibrant Minds, Colorful Lines
• The Genius of Water

Performances on May 15 and May 22 begin at the Fifth Third Bank Theater at the Aronoff Center for the Arts at 7th and Main Streets downtown, with start times of 11:15 a.m., 11:30 a.m., and 11:45 a.m. Each one-mile tour lasts about 70 minutes.

For reservations, visit https://bit.ly/Graphic2022.