Spotlight, a series focusing on women choreographers, takes to the John S. and James L. Knight Theater stage April 28 through 30. Each performance takes place at 7:30 p.m.. This is the first time North Carolina Dance Theatre is devoting a series to women choreographers. The series features three amazing performances, including:  “The Golden Section,” an exhilarating work by dance icon Twyla Tharp; “Requiem 9. 11,” a masterpiece by Jacqulyn Buglisi, a powerful descendant of legendary Martha Graham; and a new work, “Outflow Boundary,” by up-and-coming choreographer Emery LeCrone, former NC Dance Theatre 2 dancer and North Carolina native.

Twyla Tharp says in her book The Creative Habit: Learn It And Use It For Life, “Dance is preverbal; it doesn’t have the writer’s advantage of using language to establish meaning and intent. The vocabulary of dance is movement, not words.”  She goes on, “What movement lacks in specificity it more than makes up for in primal power.”  Primal power charges all three of these dances.

The first of which, Outflow Boundary,” by Emery LeCrone, was created for eight male dancers (a rarity) dancing to a weather-inspired composition by Michael Gordon. A tarp is used as a sound element that sets the mood and serves as the theme. In the end, the dancers and this tarp make magic. The mood of this dance is masculine power and wet, dark nature … rolling, twisting and turning. The dancers expand and contract, creating incredible visuals, especially in pairs and with props. Loud rain. Rolling ocean. Powerful momentum.

Next, Jacqulyn Buglisi, artistic director of Buglisi Dance Theatre and a former principal dancer of the Martha Graham Dance Company, presents Requiem 9. 11 as part of the Spotlight performance.  Set to Gabriel Faure’s “Requiem,” Buglisi uses five female dancers, costumed in long, layered silk skirts.

The performance has a Martha Graham feeling of tension and release of tension, yet it is a stunning and unique creation. Although original inspiration hails from the heroic work of female artist Artemisia Gentileschi, it became a work about the fall of the twin towers on September 11, 2001.

Buglisi saya it is about the collective unconscious of human kind as we watched in terror. She wants to remind us of our beauty and to find empathy, compassion and understanding. It is her prayer for peace. After seeing the NC Dance Theater perform Requiem 9. 11, I can say it doesn’t matter whether you know the history or not, because Buglisi captures and expresses majestic, other-worldly emotions of beauty and torture, sadness and mourning, as well as the hint of something bigger than ourselves, something which brings peace and hope. Her use of bodies, movement and fabric is powerful and memorable.

Finally, from another dance icon is Twyla Tharp’s The Golden Section. Shelley Washington, who has been staging Tharp’s work for years, loved working with NC Dance Theater and says The Golden Section is “pure dancing, pure fun.”  That sums up this timeless dance set to the music of Talking Heads’ David Byrne. Although this originally premiered in 1981, it still feels new and fresh.

The dance, itself, is full of technically difficult moves. Yet, these dancers make it look so easy.  This one is pure, pulsing joy and it’s doubtful anyone can experience it and not leave smiling.

Just like all great art, a dance is meant to be experienced live, and this trio of dances is not to be missed. You have three nights to catch this performance, NC Dance Theatre’s Spotlight, A Night of Women Choreographers: Thursday, April 28, Friday, April 29 and Saturday, April 30.

Tickets range from $25 to $79. Phone: 704-372-1000 Buy Tickets In Person: Blumenthal Performing Arts Center Box Office Belk Theater Lobby, 130 N. Tryon St., Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Knight Theater 430 S. Tryon St., Charlotte, N.C. 28202