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Kerry Clawson, The Akron Beacon Journal  |  October 07, 2019

Choreographer Parsons talks ‘living large’ ahead of Akron visit

Famed choreographer David Parsons calls his dancers superdancers, which is what he trains them to be. That high athleticism is what audiences should expect to see Saturday when Parsons Dance kicks off the DanceCleveland season in Akron. His company’s extreme physicality couldn’t be more evident than in “Caught,” Parsons’ signature 1982 work that put him on the dance map and has wowed the world with more than 2,500 performances since. In “Caught,” Parsons discovered how to make a solo dancer look like he or she is flying as a strobe light captures the performer in the air. To achieve the effect, the dancer jumps 100 times in five minutes. Parsons, who originally set the dance on himself, says it’s so hard, it takes his dancers a year to learn it. “The stamina level is so high,″ Parsons said by phone from the Los Angeles area Monday. “These guys are Olympic athletes.” The audience favorite will... Read On