National Dance Week 2006 comes to a close Friday and Saturday night at 8 p.m. with performances by the University of Oregon Repertory Dance Company (UO-RDC). The UO-RDC has been touring all across Oregon this spring, providing communities with free educational lecture demonstrations, movement workshops and masters classes. Friday and Saturday nights will include new works by guest choreographers Tiffany Mills and Gabriel Masson and performances by University dance faculty.
“It’s an international movement to bring dance to more people,” University Department of Dance assistant professor Walter Kennedy said about National Dance Week. Classes and workshops have been offered all week for University students, free of charge, which boast several forms of dance. These classes and workshops are sponsored by the Dance Oregon, the Department of Dance’s ASUO-funded student group. Dance Oregon is open to any student and aims to give students a chance to become more involved with the dance program on campus.
“They took it on as great thing to promote dance on the University campus,” Kennedy said.
The capstone of Dance Week is the performance by the UO-RDC. The company is in its eighth season and prides itself on strengthening community relationships through the movement of dance. It presents dance as both an art form and an educational tool for its participants as well as for audiences. UO-RDC is composed of University students who spend winter term learning and rehearsing new works to present and teach throughout the community during spring term. This year UO-RDC was able to expand its tour to the Portland and Bend areas.
UO-RDC was founded by director Amy Stoddart and co-directors Rita Jean Honka and Jenifer Craig, who coordinate every performance, work on choreography for the company and are in charge of selecting University dance faculty, student performers and guest artists to participate in the experience. The company hopes to provide participating students with an experience similar to a professional dance company, according to the UO-RDC Web site.
This year’s guest choreographer Mills, a University alumna, brings her expertise to the annual UO-RDC performance.
“We’re really excited to get Tiffany here,” Kennedy said.
Mills graduated from the University in 1992 and went on to form her own company in New York City. The Tiffany Mills Company formed in 2000 and has performed at the Guggenheim Museum Works & Process, Symphony Space Dance Sampler and the Lincoln Center Out of Doors series, along with many other locations. The New York Times has called Mills a “smart, fresh and accomplished” dancer.
Guest choreographer Masson is a teacher and dancer who has 20 years of experience in the dance industry. He has choreographed more than 30 pieces for both repertory and university dance companies.
“From 1997 to 2002 he served as artistic director of Gabriel Masson Dance, a national touring company, for which he created a critically acclaimed group of dances entitled ‘The Human Series, Parts I-IV,’ according to the University’s Department of Dance Web site. Masson’s most recent project is a multimedia duet, “A Story About Apples,” which premiered in Eugene in November, according to the Web site.
Assistant professor Kennedy will present a two-section piece that starts out by showcasing the confining role of women in today’s society but then floats to a lighter theme, with a song from artist k.d. lang to set the mood. Honka and Craig are also among the faculty members who will be sharing their works.
“This is about furthering the idea of dance as wonderful art form,”Kennedy said about the performance.
The concert begins at 8 p.m. in the Dougherty Dance Theatre. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $10 general admission or for $5 for students and senior citizens.

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