BATH

Resurgence Dance Company’s upcoming performance at the Chocolate Church Arts Center this weekend will be a little more up-close and personal than their previous shows.

“Late Night Tales” is a collection of dances that provide an intimate glimpse into each performer’s life and story, according to artistic director Ashley Steeves.

“I was inspired by Jon Hopkins’ “Late Night Tales” album, and it’s just this really long string of ambient music,” she explained on Tuesday night. “It kind of made me think of people getting together and talking about their lives and things you wouldn’t necessarily talk over lunch, and so that inspired me to get all the dancers together and talk more about ourselves.”

Steeves, who is also the founder of the contemporary ballet company, said she realized her dancers hadn’t had the chance to get to know each other, despite performing together. This show will also reflect that journey.

“We’re telling our own stories. Before we started the training for this performance, we all sat down as a group and all told things that were important to us, whether it was about loss, birth, happiness or addiction, these are all our personal stories portrayed in dance,” said member and dance teacher Eliza Tilbor.

While this show strays from the usual two-hour story performances Steeves is used to putting together, she hoped the message would resonate with audience members.

“I want them to take away that we’re a lot more alike than we might think. One of the dances is about a girl who struggled with a stalker in college,” she said. “Maybe we don’t all know what it’s liked to be stalked … but I think there are a lot of human moments here that make sense to everybody in some way or another. And if it doesn’t make sense, it’s a way of saying, ‘here is what I have experienced, and you can experience a little bit of it through dance and understand it.’”

Narration and poem reading will also accompany the dances to give more insight into the stories and the dances themselves, Steeves said.

As a company that is more creative and unconventional in nature, Steeves also noted that it can be a challenge to change people’s mind about it as an art form.

“Some people think that it’s some sort of obsolete courtesan ballet situation and … it’s a struggle getting people to see what it is, why they should come to see it and that it is a valid art form,” she said.

“Every dance company does something a little different,” she added. “You can’t really base one off of another. Portland Ballet, they do ‘The Nutcracker’ and they do beautiful, classical ballet and we’re not doing that. We’re doing a lot of partner and supported work, modern, unusual shapes, newer music and it’s just different. And it’s fun and we experiment a lot.”

So far, the response from the community has been positive.

“What’s cool is children come and see a show and they get it — it just makes sense to them,” she said. “And even if someone’s older and they don’t understand the language of dance, they can still be like, ‘I don’t know what any of that meant, but it was beautiful and I liked it.’”

Vivid Motion, a dance company in Portland, and performer Alexis Powers will also be making guest appearances in the show.

“Late Night Tales” will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Chocolate Church Arts Center. Tickets are $16 for adults and $14 for ages 10 to 18.

dkim@timesrecord.com