This year’s annual faculty dance concert will feature a diverse cross-section of dancing styles that is a departure from the usual modern-heavy concerts of past years.
The Dance 2002 Faculty Concert will be held at 8 p.m. today at the Dougherty Dance Theatre at Gerlinger Annex. Performances will continue Friday and Saturday.
Eight dance department faculty members have been working steadily since the beginning of winter term on choreography for dances including yoga, Argentine folk, Argentine tango, contact improvisation, modern and physical theater.
Inspiration for dance choreography comes from different places for different choreographers. For Walter Kennedy, a New York Times photo of former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic being escorted to the United Nations war crimes tribunal sparked the idea for his physical theater piece called “Justifiable Intent.”
“The movement in the photograph is something I’ve drawn from,” Kennedy said. “Someone is being taken to where they don’t want to go.”
He said he used that moment and imbedded it in the dance, then he gave his dancers assignments to generate dialogue for the piece, asking them, “What are the words you’d say in this situation?”
Kennedy added this dialogue, footage he edited from documentaries on war crimes and an original score composed by dance faculty member Christian Cherry.
Kennedy and Cherry said they worked separately on the piece and only talked from time to time about what images inspired them.
“We trusted each other’s feelings,” Cherry said.
He said the music he composed for the piece was “electro-acoustic folk” that has been heavily computerized.
“We’re going after that total theater experience,” Kennedy said. “It’s visual imagery as well as sound score to add up to something in a different way.”
He said the result was a dark, brutal piece with a lot of violence.
One of the dancers in “Justifiable Intent,” recent graduate Matthew Lieuallen, said “it is a very physically challenging piece.”
Lifting up his sleeve, he pointed out the bruises he sustained from practicing the lifts and throws in the choreography.
But “it’s been a lot of fun,” he said.
On the lighter side, faculty member Elizabeth Wartluft will be performing the passionate Argentine tango and has choreographed an Argentine folk dance for the concert.
She said she spent three consecutive summers trading folk dance lessons for English lessons in Argentina. The folk dance incorporates dance styles such as the milonga, the chacarera doble and the zamba.
While tango has a more structured style of movement, Wartluft said the milonga demonstrates a more social dancing style.
“It’s about the rhythm of the music and being close,” she said.
She said several students will perform the folk dances.
“I’m impressed at the level of dance from the students,” she said.
The student dancers have been working hard in the past few months, according to Amy Impellizzeri, who is the technical director, lighting designer and a dancer in the concert.
“They’ve pushed themselves past their own limits,” she said.
Impellizzeri choreographed a piece of contact improvisation for the concert that she said is very athletic and risky.
“There are moments that could potentially happen,” she said. “Each time, (the dance) changes.”
Although the dance is improvisation, most of the movement has been structured because of the riskiness of certain movements and the momentum of the piece, she said.
“It’s a very diverse show,” Lieuallen said. “Don’t expect a mundane show — it’s very unique.”
Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for general admission. Tickets for the Thursday performance will be available at a two-for-one price. Tickets will be sold at the door.