ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — The Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance, a local arts nonprofit, will soon stage its 2026 show, “AscenDANCE,” bringing dancers from all over the world to Asheville for a season co-benefiting MANNA FoodBank.

“AscenDANCE” will be performed at 7:30 p.m., July 16-18, at the Hanesbrands Theatre in Winston-Salem, N.C. and 7:30 p.m., July 23-25, at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in Asheville, N.C.

In addition to the main program, there will be a youth matinee at noon, July 24, at the Wortham Center. The abbreviated show is free for kids and $20 for adults.

Find tickets and more information at www.worthamarts.org/events/ascendance.

Dance and MANNA

Terpsicorps regularly partners with local nonprofits. In 2025, Asheville GreenWorks was a partner for “Appalachian Phoenix,” a performance framed around Western North Carolina’s survival of Tropical Storm Helene. This year, MANNA and Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC will serve as the partner organizations.

MANNA has been a Terpsicorps collaborator in the past, but Terpsicorps Artistic Director Heather Maloy was inspired to collaborate again after hearing their own Helene survival story. The headquarters and Asheville warehouse of the food bank were completed destroyed during the storm.

“Listening to MANNA, the people from MANNA who came to the show, just talking about the struggles and what they went through last year was just so over the top,” Maloy said. “Not only trying to feed all those people, but to have lost your space, to have lost all that… I mean, it was just overwhelming.”

Before the commencement of the season later this month, Maloy has organized a fundraiser called “Movement for MANNA.” The event, scheduled for 6-8 p.m., Thursday, July 9, at Momentum Gallery in downtown Asheville, will feature live performances by Terpsicorps dancers, improvisational music by River Guerguerian and Madelyn Ilanafood and food tastings from partnering restaurants.

Attendees will also have a chance to enter the Asheville Foodie Raffle.

“I’m doing a huge food raffle that goes through the shows,” Maloy explained. “We have had every exceptional restaurant in town donating.”

The prize basket includes items like a tour of the French Broad Chocolate Lounge, a Metro Wines experience valued at $500 and other deluxe “foodie” gifts. Raffle proceeds will be split between MANNA and Terpsicorps. Find tickets here.

Maloy said that the restaurants of Asheville have reflected the giving spirit of MANNA with their donations to the event.

“I feel like Asheville is very used to coming together as a community, especially after last year. I feel like, ever since I moved here, actually, the restaurant community steps up way more than it does in other locations,” Maloy said. “
I just think that we’re a town that appreciates in that way.”

“HUNGER”

MANNA will also be reflected in “AscenDANCE” itself. The closing dance of the show will be “HUNGER,” an original work choreographed by Maloy. The piece is an exploration of hunger through 12 distinct vignettes.

“Each one focuses on a different thing that we hunger for as human beings, some of them positive, some of them very negative,” Maloy detailed. “It begins with ‘Hunger for Sustenance,’ and the next to the last section is ‘Hunger for Survival,’ and they’re done to the same music, the same movement, but changed up. It just shows how, over time, if you don’t have access to food and basic necessities, you can’t hunger for any of these other things, ’cause you just need to survive. So, by the time we get to ‘Survival,’ they are defeated and exhausted, and there’s a very different energy within the sections.”

While the theme of food insecurity broadly aligns with the MANNA mission, the final vignette of “HUNGER” is directly linked to the spirit of the nonprofit.

“It ends with ‘Hunger to Make a Difference,'” Maloy said. “Which is similar, in some ways, to some of the sections of ‘Appalachian Phoenix’ from last year, because it’s a community coming together to help one another. So, I wanted to bring that back and have MANNA come speak at the shows.”

Between the opening number, “Clowns and Others,” and, in its world premiere, “COMING UP FOR AIR,” another dance choreographed by Maloy, there will be a moment spotlighting MANNA during each evening in Asheville.

“MANNA FoodBank are amazing, amazing human beings,” Maloy said. “Whatever I can do to help them, I want to do.”