Food & Culture
Playful, Heartfelt ‘A Dance For Dark Horses’ to Premiere at Velocity Dance Center
Seattle choreographer Kim Lusk's work riffs on a quirky cowboy lineage
By Gavin Borchert February 28, 2018

This article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of Seattle Magazine.
This article appears in print in the March 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe.
Parody, ’90s pop beats and the combination of the two are often cited in descriptions of Seattle-based choreographer Kim Lusk’s work; it’s intriguing to imagine how these attributes might or might not tie in with her self-description as “descended from a hearty line of cowboys, homesteaders and mountaineers.”
More heart on her sleeve is her credo: “I make dances because I want people to feel things—good things, fun things, thoughtful things, heartbreaking things.”
It’s an approach that’s attracting attention. Lusk was recently an artist-in-residence at her alma mater, Bainbridge Dance Center, where she showed excerpts of a work then in-progress. Now, Velocity Dance Center premieres that piece, A Dance for Dark Horses, a Kickstarter-funded, evening-length work for four dancers, which Lusk calls “a story about the ultimate power of the unlikely winner,” with a little bit of “country giddy-up.”
3/8–3/11. 7:30 p.m. $15–$50. Velocity Dance Center, Capitol Hill, 1621 12th Ave.; 206.325.8773.