Sarasota Contemporary Dance will open its 21st season with a collaboration featuring bassist Johnnie Barker and The Barker Project at the Manatee Performing Arts Center on Oct. 2 and 3.
SCD + The Barker Project will combine contemporary dance with live, improvisational music spanning jazz, funk, blues, rock and gospel. The collaboration is designed to allow the musicians and dancers to respond to one another in real time, creating a performance that can evolve throughout each show.
Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, at the Manatee Performing Arts Center, 502 Third Ave. W. in Bradenton.
The performances will launch Sarasota Contemporary Dance’s 2026-27 season, titled Raíces y Vuelos, or Roots & Flights. The 21st season explores connections between where people come from and where they are headed and includes mainstage productions, in-studio performances and educational programming.
Sarasota Contemporary Dance traces its roots to artistic director Leymis Bolaños Wilmott and Rachael Inman, who began collaborating while attending graduate school at Florida State University in 2000. They later developed programming through the FSUdanceSARASOTA initiative and founded Fuzión Dance in 2002 as Sarasota’s first professional contemporary dance company. The organization became the nonprofit Fuzión Dance Artists in 2006 and later evolved into Sarasota Contemporary Dance.
Today, the professional dance company focuses on performance, education and artistic collaboration. SCD also operates a home studio in Sarasota’s Rosemary District, offering year-round dance classes and serving as a training and performance space for dancers and choreographers. The company has performed at venues including the John F. Kennedy Center and the Ailey Citigroup Theater.
The October performances mark a return of the collaboration between SCD and The Barker Project following previous performances together. This time, the production moves to the larger Manatee Performing Arts Center stage as the company begins its new season.
More information and tickets are available through Sarasota Contemporary Dance.
