ARCHIVED EVENTS
September 20 - 23, 2018
Helanius Performs "A Bon Coeur" as part of "[UN]W.R.A.P., Traversing Memory: Performing Resistance & Resilience"
The Charlotte York Irey Theatre in the Department of Theatre & Dance at CU Boulder
1515 Central Campus Mall
Boulder, CO 80309
Time: Thursday - Saturday performances begin @ 7:30 p.m. Sunday performance begin @ 2 p.m.
Cost: $16. General Admission.
​
ABOUT
"[UN]W.R.A.P., Traversing Memory: Performing Resistance & Resilience": A week-long symposium as part of CU Boulder’s Department of Theatre & Dance 2018/2019 season, featuring lectures, panel discussions, and movement workshops with a culminating performance. Dance becomes a vehicle for revisiting embodied practices that give us ways of knowing ourselves and our communities as well as understanding complex issues around race, culture, and inclusivity.
​
This symposium will culminate with 4 performances of "A Bon Coeur," and a FREE public art event, "Laissez les bons temps rouler."
September 23, 2018
Helanius Presents "Laissez les bons temps rouler"
Downtown Boulder Civic Area & Central Park
1236 Canyon Blvd
Boulder, CO 80302
Time: 4 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Admission: FREE
​
ABOUT
This Louisiana-inspired community dance and public art event will feature multi-generational local and national artists and community members in a series of performance, visual, and culinary art experiences. The Civic Area will be divided into two experiences: one featuring Colorado favorite and nationally-recognized zydeco band Jo Jo Reed & the Happy Hill Zydeco Band from Eunice, LA on the Glen Huntington Bandshell; one with a 9-piece brass band composed of some of the greater Denver/Boulder area’s leading musicians lead by CU Boulder alum Decker Babcock on the west side of Broadway near the new 11th Street bridge. The event will also feature a mixed media visual art installation by Joyce Ellen Weinstein, a NYC-based internationally recognized artist and a former Fulbright Senior Specialist Candidate; and southern food bites by Mile High Cajun Food Truck and Catering.
*Commissioned by the Boulder Office of Arts and Culture’s Public Art Program and with additional support made possible through the CU Boulder Office for Outreach and Engagement.
​
October 6 - 7, 2018
Helanius Performs the world premiere of "A Bon Coeur"
Dance Place
3225 8th Street N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20017
Admission:
$30 Admission
$25 Admission (Dance Place Members, Seniors and Artists)
$15 College Students and Children (17 & Under)
Advanced Sales – ends one week prior to performance weekend
$25 Advanced Sales Admission
$20 Advanced Sales Admission (Dance Place Members, Seniors and Artists)
ABOUT
The second installment of a contemporary dance trilogy, "A Bon Coeur" explores how embodied practice helps interrogate complex issues of race, culture, and inclusivity. In this world premiere, Helanius J. Wilkins draws inspiration from his Creole roots and his childhood in Lafayette, Louisiana to capture moments of time in a richly-textured multimedia collage.
​
Wilkins’ multi-year creative research process has expanded into a series of three evening-length works. Interwoven with text, original sound score, and projection, "A Bon Coeur" melds physicalized ritual into a tool to construct and liberate black identity. With wandering, impressionistic unfolding as if in a dream, Wilkins builds “his paean to a city that has faced adversity but moves forward, a vibrant artistic and cultural gumbo.” (Lisa Traiger, DC Dance Watcher).
*The development of this project was made possible in part through an Artistic Assistance Project Development grant from Alternate ROOTS. Grant made possible by funds from The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The Ford Foundation, the Surdna Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellow Foundation.
*The development of this project was made possible through a Graduate Committee on the Arts & Humanities (GCAH) Research/Creative Work Grant from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
*Additional support was made possible through residencies at Real Ranch in Portland, OR, TCU in Ft. Worth, TX, Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, PA and the Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, MD as part of their Local Artist Residency Program.
​
​
Oct 13 & 14, 2018
Helanius Presents "Warning" (2011)
2018 DUMBO Dance Festival
Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center, 29 Jay Street, DUMBO
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Time: Saturday @ 2 pm & Sunday @ 6 pm
Admission: $15 - $250
​
​
​
​
​
PAST EVENTS
​Mar. 6 & 7, 2015
Hathaway Brown School's Moving Company Performs "Calibrating To Dissipate"
Ahuja Auditorium at Hathaway Brown School
Shaker Heights, OH
*Created during a two weeks residency in August 2014, this new work features a cast five dancers in a viscerally-charged work.
Mar. 17 - 21, 2015
Helanius Performs & Teaches @ ACDA South-Central Regional Conference
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX
*Making his debut in the South-Central region, Helanius will serve as one of the three adjudicators and a master teacher for the American College Dance Association (formerly the American College Dance Festival). He will also perform "Master Class" from his 2012 "/CLOSE/R" project as part of the Guest Artist & Faculty Concert.
​Mar. 26 - 28, 2015 
Cleveland State University Dance Department Premieres "Unraveling #2"
Allen Theatre Complex at Playhouse Square
Outcalt Theatre
Cleveland, OH
*Inspired by and performed to a music composition by Ravi Shanker and Philip Glass, “Unraveling #2” is a large ensemble work that dynamically forms and reforms space. For this work, Helanius approaches space as a blank canvas that is painted by richly connected and athletically-charged bodies in motion. This is the first restaging of this work since its premiere in 2010, which was performed by students of Lake Erie College.
Apr. 9, 2015
Helanius Collaborates with Joyce Ellen Weinstein for the debut of "Acts of Unseeing"
Offline at Central Booking Gallery
New York, NY
*Helanius and visual artist Joyce Ellen Weinstein reunite for the creation and performance of “Acts of Unseeing,” a performance art museum installation project that shapes and shifts notions of space and time while probing what is seen and perhaps what is not seen. A project that engages all the senses, it triggers thoughts and reflections about trust, self-sacrifice, vulnerability, passivity, courage, and power. This work comes out of combining two projects: Joyce Ellen Weinstein’s “Denial Scroll,” a limited edition, silk screen and linoleum block print created in 2009 that is a continuous scroll 14 inches high and 24 feet long; and Helanius J. Wilkins’ “Unspoken,” a solo dance work created in 2014 that emerges from his ever evolving approach to art-making. Rather than beginning with choreography or the creation of set movements, he is allowing his own bodily actions and sensory engagement to guide the process as well as the performance. Together these works draw dynamic parallels while blurring the lines between performer and audience.
*This performance will be followed by a post performance discussion with both Joyce and Helanius.
​Apr. 10 - 11, 2015 
American University Dance Company Premieres "Show/Time"
Spring Dance Concert: At Close Range
Greenberg Theatre
Washington, DC
*As part of their annual spring dance concert, AUDC will perform "Show/Time," a brand new trio created by Helanius while Guest-Artist-in-Residence in Fall 2014.
*Helanius will be present for the opening night performance and will be on the choreographers' panel for the post performance discussion.
​Apr. 11, 2015 
Helanius & Erica Rebollar/RebollarDance Deliver DC Premieres in "Everything For The First Time"
Atlas Performing Arts Center
Sprenger Theatre
Washington, DC
* Helanius and Erica Rebollar/Rebollar Dance join forces for an evening of dynamic contemporary dance at the Atlas Performing Arts Center’s Sprenger Theatre on Saturday, April 11, 2015 at 8 pm. Through both physical and conceptual rigor, these artists know no limits when it comes to pushing boundaries. The performance will feature two DC premieres: Wilkins’ "Everything For The First Time," a work performed by 25 dancers from the Dance Department at Slippery Rock University (PA), and Rebollar’s "Cyborg Suites". It will also include Joy of Motion’s Youth Dance Ensemble (YDE) performing a work-in-progress of Wilkins’ "Turning Tables," a work that will premiere in May 2015.
*The ONE NIGHT ONLY performance will be followed by an informal meet and greet where audience members can mingle with the choreographers and dancers.
​Apr. 17 - 19, 2015 
CU Boulder Dance Department Premieres New Work
University Theatre Building
Charlotte York Irey Theatre
Boulder, CO
*Commissioned by CU Boulder Dance Department, Helanius premieres a new group work for seven dancers that is currently being created as part of his Visiting Professorship at the university for the spring 2015 semester.
​May 10, 2015
"How To Think About Dance": A Live Interview with Helanius
Why? Radio Show
Episode Broadcast 5 p.m. Central Standard Time
Click Here To Listen To The Interview
​May 16, 2015
Joy of Motion's Youth Dance Ensemble (YDE) Debuts "Turning Tables"
Greenberg Theater at American University
Washington, DC
*Commissioned during fall 2014, this new ensemble work features a cast of six dancers.
June 1 - 5, 2015
SUMMER DANCE WORKSHOP: Helanius Teaches Intermediate/Advanced Contemporary Technique
University of Colorado - Boulder
Boulder, CO
Class Description
This workshop is designed to deepen studies in contemporary dance through finding the joy of “daring dance” by engaging in a physical practice and discussion-based process that fuses the exploration of velocity, weight, gesture, and gymnastic principles with technique as conditioning work, mental training, and building strong performance skills. Concepts are introduced and practiced through improvisation, floor and center technique sequences, and across the floor combinations. Ultimately this workshop enable participants to increase their sense of body awareness and connectivity, identify personal movement preferences while broadening movement possibilities, explore expressive range, and manipulate movement ideas through the performance of choreography.
July 5 - 18, 2015
Helanius Teaches @ SWAMP Dance Fest!
University of Florida
Gainsville, FL
transformative four-week dance intensive intended for pre-professional and professional dancers. "The mission of the festival is to develop dancers with a wide range of technical skills and artistic sensibility, preparing them for the vast range of performance, choreography and learning opportunities available to them in today’s dance field." *A
July 20 - 24, 2015
SUMMER DANCE WORKSHOP: Helanius Teaches Intermediate/Advanced Contemporary Technique
Cleveland State University
Cleveland, OH
Class Description
This workshop is designed to deepen studies in contemporary dance through finding the joy of “daring dance” by engaging in a physical practice and discussion-based process that fuses the exploration of velocity, weight, gesture, and gymnastic principles with technique as conditioning work, mental training, and building strong performance skills. Concepts are introduced and practiced through improvisation, floor and center technique sequences, and across the floor combinations. Ultimately this workshop enable participants to increase their sense of body awareness and connectivity, identify personal movement preferences while broadening movement possibilities, explore expressive range, and manipulate movement ideas through the performance of choreography.
​Mar. 31 - Apr. 3, 2016
DanceTCU Premieres "A Gumbo"
Erma Lowe Hall at Texas Christian University
Fort Worth, TX
*This new work, created in collaboration with Roma Flowers (lighting design & video technology) and Susan Austin (costumes & set design) features a cast of eleven dancers in a viscerally-charged work.
May 20, 2016
MASTER CLASS WITH Helanius J. Wilkins: Intermediate/Advanced Contemporary Technique
*As part of Dance Exchange Friday Morning Series
Dance Exchange
Takoma Park, MD
June 6 - 10, 2016
SUMMER DANCE WORKSHOP: Helanius Teaches Intermediate/Advanced Contemporary Technique
University of Colorado - Boulder
Boulder, CO
Class Description
This workshop is designed to deepen studies in contemporary dance through finding the joy of “daring dance” by engaging in a physical practice and discussion-based process that fuses the exploration of velocity, weight, gesture, and gymnastic principles with technique as conditioning work, mental training, and building strong performance skills. Concepts are introduced and practiced through improvisation, floor and center technique sequences, and across the floor combinations. Ultimately this workshop enable participants to increase their sense of body awareness and connectivity, identify personal movement preferences while broadening movement possibilities, explore expressive range, and manipulate movement ideas through the performance of choreography.
June 16 & 18, 2016
Helanius J. Wilkins Performs "Master Class" (excerpt from "/CLOSE/R")
Barnstorm Dance Festival
Houston, TX
Click For More Information
July 5 - 8, 2016
SUMMER DANCE WORKSHOP: Helanius Teaches Intermediate/Advanced Contemporary Technique
Cleveland State University
Cleveland, OH
Class Description
This workshop is designed to deepen studies in contemporary dance through finding the joy of “daring dance” by engaging in a physical practice and discussion-based process that fuses the exploration of velocity, weight, gesture, and gymnastic principles with technique as conditioning work, mental training, and building strong performance skills. Concepts are introduced and practiced through improvisation, floor and center technique sequences, and across the floor combinations. Ultimately this workshop enable participants to increase their sense of body awareness and connectivity, identify personal movement preferences while broadening movement possibilities, explore expressive range, and manipulate movement ideas through the performance of choreography.
​Oct. 28 - 30, 2016
Helanius Performs "Master Class" (excerpt from "/CLOSE/R")
COCO Dance Festival 2016
Trinidad and Tobago
​
​Feb. 26, 2017
Helanius Performs "A Bon Coeur" (Work-in-Progress Presentation)
Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival 2017
Atlas Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
Click to Purchase Tickets
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Feb. 27, 2017
Helanius Performs excerpt from "A Bon Coeur" (Work-in-Progress Presentation)
Movement Research at the Judson Chruch Series
New York City, NY
​
Apr. 21 - 23, 2017
The Current
CU Boulder Dance Division's Faculty &
Guest Artist Concert
Charlotte York Irey Theatre
Boulder, CO
​
​June 17 - 18, 2017
Erica Rebollar & Friends in 40 and UP!
Joe's Movement Emporium
Mt. Rainier, MD
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Dec. 3, 2017
Helanius Performs on Millennium Stage
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, D.C.
* Join award-winning choreographer and two-time Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning award recipient Helanius J. Wilkins for “Triggered,” a program of dynamic contemporary dance. This program will feature solo works performed by Wilkins and the D.C. premiere of his latest, hard-hitting work “Media’s Got Me All Figured Out: Reloaded,” a trio inspired by the tensions and events that fueled the Black Lives Matter Movement. Joining Wilkins will be dancers from the University of Colorado Boulder and special guests. Through both physical and conceptual rigor, Wilkins knows no limits when it comes to pushing boundaries.
March 17, 2018
Helanius teaches Master Class & Performs a preview of "An Open Letter" (New Work)
Presenting Denver Dance Festival Master Classes and Preview Performance Series
The D.A.M. Studios-Dance Art Media located at 3265 S. Wadsworth Blvd, Bldg. 2-Unit H
Lakewood, CO 80227
Time: 1 - 2:30 pm
Cost: $15. Tickets required.
​
May 4, 2018
Helanius Performs "A Bon Coeur" (Work-in-Progress Presentation)
Erma Lowe Hall Studio Theatre @ TCU
Ft. Worth, TX
Time: 8 pm
Admission: FREE (Suggested Donation $15). There are no advanced sales. Access will be on a first-come first-served basis on the day of the performance. ONLY CASH & CHECKS will be accepted.
​
*All donations made will directly support the completion of the project, leading to its premiere.
​
June 23 - 24, 2018
Helanius Performs "An Open Letter" (New Work)
Presenting Denver Dance Festival, "New & Now"
The Robert and Judi Newman Center for the Performing Arts, Byron Theatre located at 2344 East IIiff Avenue, Denver, CO 80210
​
Be our dance fan. Use code PDHW at the beginning of checkout - www.newmantix.com/promo.
Cost: $35 general admission
*Pricing is subject to change without notice. Additional ticketing fees may apply.
​
*The 2018 Presenting Denver Dance Festival,co-presented by Presenting Denver and The Robert and Judi Newman Center for the Performing Arts, will be a compilation of world premieres by Colorado Chadash Contemporary Dance Movement, Edgar L. Page, Gregory Gonzales, Hannah Kahn Dance Company, Helanius J. Wilkins, Kristen Demaree, Moraporvida Contemporary Dance, and The Schiff Dance Collective. These main stage artists will perform in the “New & Now” concert in the Byron Theatre on June 23-24, 2018. There will be additional dance activities over the weekend and throughout the year. Tickets for the Presenting Denver Dance Festival “New & Now” concert go on sale November 6, 2017 on the Newman Center Presents website.
​