Celebrate end of winter with dance
March 6, 2008
The Ohio University School of Dance Winter Dance Concert ’08 will be presented this Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., with an additional matinee performance at 2 p.m. on Saturday. All performances will be held in the Elizabeth Evans Baker Theater in Kantner Hall at OU.
The concert showcases original works by faculty members and visiting artists, and the works feature student dancers. The choreography this year has been inspired by everything from beauty to books, according to a press release.
Associate dance professor Travis Gatling’s piece “Frame by Frame” aims to “capture and celebrate both the beauty and power of the dancers.” Six student dancers will perform to original music composed by David Glivar, a music composition major at OU.
Professor Mickie Geller’s piece will feature nine student dancers and is inspired by the French film “Last Year at Marienbad” as well as a New York Times photograph of an icy fashion show. The piece explores what could be hiding underneath cold exteriors, according to the release.
“Some Assembly Required,” choreographed by professor Marina Walchli, will give audience members the unique chance to view a dance performance under construction. This work also will feature live music composed by Robert L. Parker.
Associate Professor Ruben Graciani has choreographed two pieces and served as the rehearsal director for choreography in a piece by guest artist Stefanie Batten-Bland. Bland’s work, “Apart: One Word or Two,” is about the abstract relationships, whether intimate or distant, that people form.
Graciani’s works will feature 16 student dancers, and his piece “Office Space” also will feature himself and Gatling as frantic businessmen. While Graciani says that work is not a “social commentary,” the female dancers will use ballet to inhabit the roles of hardworking secretaries trying to succeed in a man’s world.
Graciani’s new work “The Missing Piece” is inspired by the Shel Silverstein book by the same name. Michael Lachman from the school of dance has prepared an original electronic manipulation of Beethoven to reflect the work’s images that Graciani said “become about alienation and that fight to belong even though in reality you only have yourself.”
For more information, call 593-4800 or stop by the lobby of Kantner Hall between noon and 5 p.m.
Comments
Please log in to post a comment.
