“Gather all four seasons today?? I’ll do it, but I have to be home by dinnertime. It’s mac and cheese night!”

Follow one child’s journey around the globe in one day in To Sail Around the Sun with D.C. dance company, Company | E, and music ensemble Sound Impact in an enchanting tour of the world. 

Through dance, live music, and storytelling, To Sail Around the Sun travels beneath the springtime waves off the shores of Australia, deep into the summertime rainforests of Argentina, under the autumn leaves of Japan, and through the wintry snows of Kazakhstan in an adventure for families and children of all ages! Set to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and performed live by a string quartet, To Sail Around the Sun is “an aural and visual feast” (Jennifer Perry, Broadway World). Join Company | E this September on National Dance Day to celebrate movement, music, and the planet we call home.

To Sail Around the Sun was originally created by Company | E in 2017 for the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences program.

Company | E is a DC-based repertory dance company focusing on international artistic and cultural exchanges and local dance education. Using dance and its supporting art forms to bridge cultural divides and speak to the critical issues of our time, the company serves as Cultural Diplomats and educators of artists of all ages around the globe. Founded in 2011, Company | E embraces the overarching “E” words that it was named for: ecology, equity, excitement, energy, education, engagement, and so many more.

At home, Company | E has been commissioned six times by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts since 2012 and are building performance and career opportunities for local artists through partnerships with the Dance Institute of Washington and Howard University. They work with Washington Performing Arts in school-time arts education programming and run their own school for dance, The Movement Center. 

Internationally, the company collaborates with artists in dance, music, and performance art through the Diplomatic Missions of the world and U.S. Department of State, creating evening-length programs in the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Israel, The Palestinian Territories, Cuba, the U.K., Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and dozens of others, representing American art and culture in parts of the world where Americans are rarely seen. Through it all, Company | E is crossing borders and sharing experiences with artists, audiences, and students from all walks of life.

Executive Director: Paul Gordon Emerson

Co-Artistic Directors: Paul Gordon Emerson & Kathryn Pilkington