5 highlights on tap at the Atlas Intersections Festival

By Doug Rule on February 26, 2015 @ruleonwriting

Atlas Intersection: dog and pony dc — dog and pony dc

“We’ve created a festival where the structure ensures that people encounter one another in ways that they might not expect,” Mary Hall Surface says of Intersections: A New America Arts Festival.

Now in its sixth year, Surface’s Intersections presents shows in all genres of the performing arts, staged throughout the various theaters in the Atlas Performing Arts Center, often in overlapping fashion, “so the audiences end up hanging out together listening to a café concert.”

But the real draw of the festival is to see performances mixing media and genres, often through audience interaction and engagement. Or, as Surface describes it, “using the arts as a catalyst for dialogue.”

We’ve selected five highlights still to come from this year’s festival, featuring 700 performers and running to March 7.

A national leader in devised, or participatory, theater, dog & pony dc stages its new show Toast, intended “to push the boundaries of our current technology and explore the awesome potential of group innovation.” (2/28 and 3/7)
Aerial artists AirborneDC pair up with the Zip Zap Circus from South Africa for two performances demonstrating the two companies’ work in empowering inner-city youth through daring artistry and skill- and trust-building exercises. (2/28)
An outgrowth of the now-defunct Lesbian & Gay Chorus of Washington, DC, the Not What You Think ensemble performs a program of social justice-themed folk and contemporary songs that will include audience participation in both song and dance. (3/1)
Dissonance Dance Theatre, a contemporary dance company founded by a gay veteran of the Washington Ballet, offers a mixed-repertory program of works intentionally straddling the divide between classical ballet and contemporary urban dance. (3/1)
The eclectic chamber ensemble All Points West — “hell-bent on transforming the classical concert back into a fun, social experience” — aims to jump-start the weekend with a program of “Bach and Brews” featuring classical music performed while the audience sips beer furnished by the local Atlas Brew Works. (2/27 and 3/6)

Intersections runs weekends to March 7, at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Ticket prices and passes vary. Call 202-399-7993 or visit atlasarts.org.