From March 6-8, University of Oregon’s Department of Dance hosted Dance in Concert at the Dougherty Dance Theatre, showcasing performances from classical ballet to contemporary dance.
UO students and visiting dance instructor Leah Glenn performed distinct dance pieces to the audience. Glenn teaches dance at The College of William & Mary in Virginia and visited UO to help put together Dance in Concert.
The concert started with a classical ballet performance on pointe. Soon after, the show transitioned to contemporary dance, prompting a dramatic transformation of expression.
“I am so proud of the students and how hard they have been working,” Shannon Mockli, associate professor at UO Department of Dance, said. “They challenge a range of expressions.”
She said that some students danced a classical ballet piece and then transitioned to a contemporary dance piece later.
Mockli not only oversaw the performances but also performed a piece, “Kitchen Table Conversation,” with Glenn. Mockli and Glenn met in October of 2024 when Glenn did a workshop and performed at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum as a collaboration with her husband, Steve Prince, an artist showing an exhibition at the museum.
Mockli reached out to Glenn during her visit and they performed with little preparation at the JSMA. Glenn said that she and Mockli enjoyed performing at the museum because they got to interact with people who they usually don’t see at dance performances. Glenn and Mockli felt there was a positive reaction from the museum audience even though dance isn’t the most common way of expression for some museum goers.
“Movement is our first means of communication,” Glenn said.
Glenn focuses on kinesthetic empathy in her movement and creations. Kinesthetic empathy is “one’s ability to gain a better understanding of another’s experience by observing the movement,” she said.
Glenn said she hopes to create dances that “will leave the audience wanting more,” and “to be the catalyst of difficult conversations.”
In her dance piece, The Kitchen Table Conversation, Glenn facilitates authentic conversations. Glenn said that so many conversations happen in the kitchen — it is the place where people gather to make food and share about their day.
In the middle of the stage, there is a kitchen table — the first kitchen table Glenn had when she was in high school.
The table has a mother, elder and a young man etched on its surface and Glenn said those people represent different points of view that exist in the world.
In the week following the dance concert, Glenn worked with some UO dance students on a piece that they hope to perform in April. By working with students and performing with them, Glenn hopes to answer the question: “What are those different points of view that exist in the world?”
UO Department of Dance’s next major performance will be the student spotlight towards the end of the spring term. Performances are welcome for any students and community members open to experiencing movements that you can feel and which make you think.
