Dance - Rebel Alliance

Dance choreographer Christine Suarez is a bit of a rebel. But she often feels guilty about it. “Authority or rules make me angry, but then I’m also afraid,” says Suarez, who studied dance at Emory University before moving to New York 11 years ago. “I want to, of course, fulfill my vision, but on the other hand I want to belong and I want approval.”

Atlanta’s Nerve Series was created to answer that dilemma in experimental dance. Returning for its fourth season with this weekend’s Pushing Up From Our Roots, the Nerve Series provides a supportive community for choreographers dancing on or even outside the fringes of established movement theory.

Imbued with a playful collective spirit and a love of discovery, the Nerve Series includes Atlanta choreographers Saskia Benjamin, Wayne Smith, Jhon Stronks, Elizabeth McCune Dishman, and Martha Donovan.

So far, Nerve has avoided the too-common fate of many edgy collectives: the creation of an authoritarian avant-garde with its own sacred rules and immutable codes.

Suarez’s “Solo Series Project” intercuts splices of three rebellion-story solos. Dishman, usually a controlled choreographer of dizzyingly complex erudition, loosens up with “Permutations,” her first foray into collaborative choreography. “Creative risk is a high value to this group, and this element has changed me over the years,” Dishman says.

Choreographer Donovan hasn’t been spotted on the dancefloor in recent years. The Nerve Series reveals why. Donovan now works with a group that helps people discover deeper layers of the body through conversation and interactive touching. At Nerve, Donovan will give a presentation - much of it nonverbal. As far as CL has been able to determine, no Kool-Aid or group-gropes are involved.

The Nerve Series proves that experimentation is a priority for these rebel choreographers.

thomas.bell@creativeloafing.com

The Nerve Series presents Pushing Up From Our Roots, Fri.-Sun., May 13-15, at The Beam, 750 Glenwood Ave. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m. $10-$12. 404-931-0212. www.coriolisdance.org.??