Rise is a homecoming – a selection of works that reclaim joy, tradition, and cultural legacy.  In the heart of winter, Collage takes the stage with a powerful program that honors resilience and collective strength, featuring world premieres and Memphis debuts that speak to the richness of Black identity and the beauty of forward motion.

Rise, our trademark performance, also features students of the Collage Dance Conservatory – our dance stars of tomorrow – whose presence affirms the promise of what’s ahead.

The Program

1. The Cotillion (World Premiere) by Kevin Thomas
2. Flack (Memphis Premiere) by Kevin Iega Jeff
3. Rise by Kevin Thomas
4. Featuring Collage’s dance stars of tomorrow

At the center of the program is The Cotillion, a vibrant new ballet inspired by the enduring legacy of Black cotillions in the American South.  Paired with the soul-stirring Flack, set to the music of Roberta Flack, and Thomas’s neoclassical work Rise, set to Dr. King’s Mountaintop speech, the program moves between ritual and resistance, celebration and conviction.

With young dancers from our Conservatory joining the stage, Rise becomes more than a performance…it becomes a passing of the torch.