ODC, the groundbreaking contemporary dance ensemble known for its athleticism, passion and intellectual depth, returns to the Lakewood Cultural Center stage at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 23.

In boulders and bones, choreography by ODC artistic directors Brenda Way and KT Nelson and time-lapse video projections of work by sculptor Andy Goldsworthy marry in a stunning love letter to our natural surroundings. The entire work is set to a score created by Zoë Keating, whose cello and foot-controlled laptop create haunting, repetitive fragments of sound layered electronically to sound like an ever-growing orchestra of cellos. Called a “colossal triumph of the imagination,” boulders and bones is a visual feast for both fans and those new to dance.

Among the many awards ODC’s three resident choreographers—Brenda Way, KT Nelson and Kimi Okada—have received are a Guggenheim, NEA American Masterpiece Award, seven Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, two Nureyev Awards, a San Francisco Examiner Golden Slipper Award and a Tony nomination. ODC has been hailed as “Best Dance Company” in the San Francisco Bay Guardian’s Best of the Bay 2002, 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2011 editions. In 2009, ODC was selected by the Brooklyn Academy of Music as one of three dance companies invited to tour internationally under the aegis of the U.S. State Department’s inaugural DanceMotion USA tour.

Founded in 1971 by Artistic Director Brenda Way, Oberlin Dance Collective, named after its place of origin, Oberlin College, loaded up a yellow school bus and relocated to San Francisco in 1976. Way’s goal was to ground the company in a dynamic, pluralistic setting. In 1979, ODC was the first modern dance company in America to build its own home facility from which it now operates the dance company, a school, a theater, a gallery and a health clinic for dancers.

Tickets start at $20 and are available at 303-987-7845, www.Lakewood.org/LCCPresentsor the Lakewood Cultural Center Box Office, 470 S. Allison Parkway (Wadsworth and West Alameda Avenue). The 2015-2016 Lakewood Cultural Center Presents! season is generously supported by the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), with appreciation to the citizens of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, 5280 Magazine, Colorado Creative Industries, and Denver Post Community, improving and enriching the lives of those in our community.