Get a head start on ‘Heart’

Pacific Dance Ensemble will present its 36th annual “Dances from the Heart: A Celebration of Spring & Benefit Auction” from Friday, June 2, through Sunday, June 4, at the Newport Performing Arts Center.

This year’s “Dances from the Heart” will feature choreography by ensemble alumni Amber Star Merkens, from her senior year at Juilliard.  Merkens went on to dance and tour internationally with the Jose Limon Company and Mark Morris Dance Group.  She presently is Rehearsal Director for Dance Heginbotham based in New York City.  The show also features choreography by fellow ensemble alumni, Livanna Maislen, aka Marissa Maislen, who attended NYU Tisch School of the Arts and then went on to perform dance, theatre and aerial installations both nationally and abroad, including seven years performing the award-winning movement interpretation of Shakespeare’s, “Macbeth,” “Sleep No More” in New York City. Featured musicians include Alex Llumiquinga from Ecuador, accompanying dancers in choreography based on dances and rhythms of the indigenous peoples of the Andes; as well as music by members of the Newport High Jazz Band and the Tex Brooklyn Experience.  As is traditional for “Dances from the Heart,” there will be a benefit auction featuring works by local artists and businesses, including artwork by Leighton Blackwell, Ed Cameron, Sal Strom, Amy Pattison, Japanese printmaker Sei, Richard Cabral and more.

The Newport Performing Arts Center is located at 777 W Olive Street. For more information, go to coastarts.org or call 541-265-2787.