“Dance 2012” — the annual Department of Dance’s faculty dance concert — will be held Feb. 16-18 at 8 p.m. in the Dougherty Dance Theatre in Gerlinger Annex.@@http://dance.uoregon.edu/calendars/perfcal.html@@ The concert will showcase choreographed pieces by four dance faculty — Shannon Mockli,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Shannon+Mockli@@ Brad Garner,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Brad+Garner@@ Rita Honka@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Rita+Honka@@ and Walter Kennedy — @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Walter+Kennedy@@ as well as work by guest artist Holly Johnston.@@http://dance.uoregon.edu/calendars/perfcal.html@@
“For most of us faculty, this is what we really do. We’re choreographers as much as we are teachers,” assistant professor Shannon Mockli said. “It’s really where our interests are … this is a space where we can do both.”
The annual faculty concert provides an opportunity for faculty to experiment, create work and teach students with the potential for performing the piece elsewhere later.
“I think this year in particular, it really showcases the strengths of our dancers,” Mockli said. “The eager, passionate department is developing and will continue to develop in terms of the rigor of our student dancers.”
Her work, “Aftershock,” features 18 dance students performing jazz-style steps with the music of associate professor of trumpet Brian McWhorter@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Brian+McWhorter@@ and Brazilian musician Amon Tobin.@@http://www.amontobin.com/about@@
“It explores the idea of cause … one event triggering other events,” Mockli said. “It’s about the interconnectedness of individuals, and how their actions have an effect on a series of events that follow.”
She said the piece is physically challenging with an element of sensuality.
“There’s physical partnering in which one partner will cause a chain of events with other partners,” she said. “It’s desperate, it’s very dynamic. It’s kind of always changing.”
Assistant professor Brad Garner and Director of Music in Dance Christian Cherry@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Christian+Cherry@@ collaborated to create “And They Gathered,” a 12-person modern dance piece incorporating strong dubstep beats and lighting experimentation. The piece explores whether religion and politics are topics that dance can communicate about.
“As choreographers, we want to take ourselves seriously,” Garner said. “But, you know, we ask ourselves, ‘Is dance the best place to talk about these things?’”
“And They Gathered” is an attempt. Light is a character in the piece. The dance begins with a central light source, and dancers gather around it and form a circle. Gradually, the work moves from focusing on the light we all share to the light within every individual.
“I try to pare some fundamental ideas down to the bare roots,” he said.
Instructor Rita Honka choreographed a piece for seven dancers called “Look.” Based on her experiences in Detroit, the piece features the music of John Davidson and Lesley Ann Warren,@@http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnEbbyS_fgg@@ Trick Trick@@http://www.trick-trick.net/main/index.html@@ and Eminem.@@we all know whitey@@
Associate professor Walter Kennedy’s piece, “The Ecstasies Above,” is a dance for five female students. The work is driven by its music, a rich and dynamic score for chorus as well as an octet and string quartet by Tarik O’Regan.@@http://www.tarikoregan.com/@@
Mockli and Garner, who identify as performers as well as creators, will also both perform original solo dance pieces. Mockli collaborated with local video artist Ian Coronado@@http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ian-coronado/5/b22/5b9@@ for her piece, “A Space Between.”
“As dancers, we try to hone the body,” Mockli said. “We try to train the body to be very versatile and will it to do what we want it to do.”
But sometimes, the control is out of people’s hands, whether due to age, stress or injury. “A Space Between” explores this space of transition, where self-identity is a continuous process.
“We’re always in transit, always in process. Never really arriving,” she said.
Garner’s solo work, titled “This is (Also) Not a Pipe” is based on Rene Magritte’s well-known French “La trahison des images” (also known as “The treachery of images”), in which “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (English translation: “This is not a pipe”) is written in beneath a painting of a pipe.@@http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=34438;type=101@@ The idea ultimately focuses on representation through art. He hopes to challenge the distinction between artists and the images they create. For example, when viewers watch dance, they connect the idea or concept represented with the performers themselves, but that’s not necessarily them.
“I’m sort of playing around with people seeing me versus seeing my dance,” Garner said. “I’m sort of going along with the idea of ‘This is not really Brad.’ It’s framed within the dance — you don’t really know me more because of it.”@@i disagree@@
There will also be a dance piece choreographed by guest artist Holly Johnston of the Ledges and Bones dance company, which is based in Los Angeles and San Francisco.@@http://ledgesandbones.org/@@ Her piece, “Prelude to a Secret,” focuses on the tension between formal human behavior — like etiquette — and the animal instinct inside everyone.
“It challenges the students to change characters,” Garner said of the piece; he helped coordinate Johnston’s visit to the University in October.
Auditions to perform in the various faculty dances were open to all dance students.
“We work with students of varying levels in the department,” Mockli said. “It provides them with the opportunity to participate.”
The concert is a means to share dance faculty choreography with students, other faculty and the wider campus and Eugene communities.
“It sort of bridges the different communities together,” Garner said. “As faculty, we stand between all these different entities and bridge them by what we do.”