After 20 years of dance concerts held in the makeshift Dougherty Dance Theatre at the top of Gerlinger Annex, the University dance departmentwill finally return to the Robinson Theatre for this year’s faculty dance concert.
About 75 students auditioned to perform in the annual faculty dance concert in the fall, and nearly 50 students were cast for the performances.
Undergraduate coordinator for the dance department Walter Kennedy, who came to the University in 2000, teaches modern, ballet technique and dance improvisation.
“We are thrilled to have been invited back to the Robinson Theatre now that the renovations have been finished,” Kennedy said.
“The concert is a chance for the faculty choreographers to work with the students for an extended period of time and go intensively and deep into their choreographic interests and develop a performance for the students.”
Although it is mostly students who perform the choreography of various faculty members, professors occasionally dance as well. Kennedy has performed in several concerts during his time at the University.
“It’s also a showcase for those of us who still perform as dancers, so it’s a place where we can do that,” Kennedy said. “I performed last year, but this year I am choreographing a piece called ‘Recombinant Forms.’ It’s definitely not a light and fluffy piece, but I’m really excited about all the dancers in it.”
Several adjunct professors bring a wide range of styles to the dance department, but the faculty concert focuses mostly on modern styles.
“We are a modern dance department basically. That’s where we all kind of live as artists, and the adjunct faculty will bring in other things,” Kennedy said.
Dance major Anna Waller has performed in several faculty dance concerts and will be performing in Shannon Mockli’s “Night Queens” piece this year.
“The dance professors may all be grounded in modern dance, but they have very different aesthetic preferences and dance backgrounds that inform their choreography,” she said.
Although the difference between modern and ballet may seem slight to the average student, the department emphasizes its focus on modern dance rather than ballet.
“There just aren’t enough dancers at this school that are at that level in ballet for us to be able to focus on it more and do ballet performances,” Kennedy said.
The show will contain more modern pieces than ballet, and some performances will be an unforgettable experience for the audience.
Along with his debut performance as the newest faculty member of the dance department, Brad Garner also choreographed “Harmonic Tremors” for the concert. The modern piece will attempt to explore the nature of volcanoes and create a three-dimensional experience with the use of dance and multimedia.
“It is a complete departure for me in that it evolved within a group of collaborators, rather than just me and my dancers at a studio,” Garner said. “I have always looked to the ideas of writers, musicians, philosophers to inform my choreographic work, but I have always created the majority of the theatrical elements myself.”
Several multimedia elements will be featured in the performance, including costume design, animation, music and even an expert in volcanology from the geology department.
“This piece offers audiences a complete experience through multiple layers of perception. It is like the difference between seeing something on television versus at an IMAX theatre in 3-D — it surrounds you and shakes the seats,” Garner said.
Waller hopes performing in the Robinson Theatre will give the dancers newfound energy on a bigger stage and bring in a larger audience.
“The concert offers the audience a showcase of great dancing and choreography, but it also offers great production value. This is a professional show put on by the collaborative efforts of the dance and theatre departments,” Waller said.
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