Displaying items by tag: Gala
Over 75 University of Utah dance students are set to perform in the annual School of Dance Gala opening 4/11. The Gala is a chance for the entire school to come together on stage at the Marriott Center for Dance, and this year includes more guest artists than usual including a collaboration with SALT Contemporary Dance, a local professional dance company gaining recognition. Audiences will be able to see two distinct programs from April 11-20, 2019. The School of Dance program features choreographers Anouk Van Dijk, Penny Saunders, Stephen Koester, Rick McCullough, and Christopher Alloways-Ramsey. A second program also features Anouk Van Dijk, Penny Saunders, in addition to SALT Contemporary Dance resident artists. In this collaboration with SALT, students in the School of Dance have the unique opportunity to work alongside professionals in the field.
Headlining the concert, international choreographer Anouk Van Dijk works with a cast crossing over from both the modern and ballet programs. After years of working with renowned professional dance companies all over the globe, this is the first time Van Dijk is working with a University to create a new dance on a group of students. The School of Dance is pleased and honored to welcome Van Dijk as she works intensively with 24 students on a punchy new work.
Stephen Koester, a pillar of the modern dance department for 20 years, premieres his final dance piece as a Professor at the University of Utah. His retirement marks a significant shift in the School of Dance and his newest work, Mass and Celebration, honors his time in dance and as a faculty member at the U. In addition to teaching improvisation, composition, technique, and graduate seminars, Koester has choreographed extensively both nationally and internationally. Mass and Celebration will be performed by an intimate group of six students, and there are rumors that Koester himself will make a cameo appearance.
Guest Artist Penny Saunders brings in a fresh collaboration with SALT Contemporary Dance. Forget Me Not examines parenthood and time with ballet and modern dancers from the School of Dance and SALT company members performing together. For three of the Gala performances, SALT presents additional resident company choreographers including Joni McDonald, Garrett Smith, Nick Palmquist, Christian Denis, and Peter Chu.
Visiting Professor Rick McCullough brings classical ballet technique with a contemporary aesthetic. McCullough, whose career included dancing with Harkness Ballet and Netherlands Dance Theater, is an award-winning choreographer. His latest work, Journey, explores timeless issues of confrontation and support through a contemporary ballet lens.
Rounding out the concert with classical ballet, Visiting Assistant Professor Christopher Alloways-Ramsey restages Le Jardin Animé, a section from Petipa’s full-length ballet Le Corsaire. This iconic piece highlights the beauty of dancing bodies set in a garden.
“The Gala is richly varied this year and has a work for every audience member,” says concert director Christine McMillan. With new collaborations, international artists, and state of the art theater facilities, the School of Dance promises to inspire questions and conversations. The Gala only comes once a year, and audiences have two weekends to see two distinct programs. Catch the concerts 4/11 – 4/20 at the Marriott Center for Dance.
This February, the School of Dance at the University of Utah is honored to welcome Gino Grenek of the Stephen Petronio Company for an exciting residency with dancers from both the Modern Dance and Ballet programs. Grenek's work with the company spans over 17 years, and he will work with the dancers to reset Petronio’s seminal work, MiddleSexGorge. This will be the first time the work has ever been performed by a university, and the school is alive with anticipation of this powerful part of the Gala program.
The inclusion of work in the Gala by the groundbreaking company, which celebrated its 30th anniversary just a few years ago, is a wonderful way to celebrate our start as the new School of Dance. It is without question an incredible honor for our students to have the opportunity to perform Petronio’s MiddleSexGorge.
Since founding SPC in 1984, Petronio has created over 35 works for his company and has been commissioned by some of the world’s most prestigious modern and ballet companies, including William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt (1987), Deutsche Oper Berlin (1992), Lyon Opera Ballet (1994), Maggio Danza Florence (1996), Sydney Dance Company (2003, full evening), Norrdans (2006), the Washington Ballet (2007), The Scottish Ballet (2007), and two works for National Dance Company Wales (2010 and 2013).
His career has been greatly influenced by his work with Steve Paxton, as well as his time with the Trisha Brown Dance Company (1979 to 1986), of which he was the first male dancer. He has gone on to build a unique career, receiving numerous accolades, including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, an American Choreographer Award, a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, and most recently a 2015 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.
Stephen Petronio Company is now working on an unprecedented program, Bloodlines, which will honor a lineage of postmodern dance-masters. Over the course of 5 years SPC will perform choreography from influential artists along with creations by Petronio. Dedicated to the concept of artistic lineage, SPC will be the first contemporary American company to perform these iconic works outside of their original choreographer’s companies.
The School of Dance is thrilled for this unique engagement with the Stephen Petronio Company and looks forward to sharing this exciting program with the Salt Lake community.
Please join us for the School of Dance Gala on 3/23 – 4/1 at the Marriott Center for Dance.
The Ballet and Modern Dance programs will share the stage for the first time ever in the School of Dance’s inaugural Gala Concert this March. Formed in 2016, the new School of Dance is dedicated to the continued legacies of the individual disciplines of Ballet and Modern Dance. In honor of the creation of this School, the Gala concert will feature a diverse program, incorporating four unique perspectives on the art of dance including an excerpt of Swan Lake, two original faculty works, and culminating with an excerpt of Stephen Petronio’s iconic masterwork MiddleSexGorge.
The program opens with Act III of the legendary ballet, Swan Lake, boldly adapted by Professor Jay Kim and assisted by Professor James Ady. The version performed is the 1895 revival first staged for the Imperial Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.
School of Dance Director Luc Vanier’s Triptych Octet is a distillation of the evening length work, Triptych. Created in 2008, Triptych was created in collaboration with composer Chris Burns and painter Leslie Vansen. The dance’s movement research focuses primarily on allowing the body to arch to its full capacity and what this means for the balance between the head, spine and the pelvis. The clockwork precision timing of the crisscrossing patterns of the two trios is inspired by Vansen’s abstract paintings. The duet explores what it means to be tri-legged as Burn’s percussive score sets the spacious rhythmic tone for the work.
Enough, a new work by Modern Dance Program Coordinator Stephen Koester, started by asking the question, “As civilization ‘advances,’ have we become any more civilized or humane?” Our history can be said to be littered with our inability to treat others with humanity, kindness and care, as beliefs, faiths, greed, need, and want trump responsibility to each other. Juxtaposing a solo figure against a quartet, the dance evokes images of injury, injustice, offense and defeat, building to a sense of desolation and disconnection. Koester contrasts visceral, aggressive movement and his signature partnering with a serene sound score by composer Max Richter.
The exciting final dance on the Gala program is an excerpt of the groundbreaking work, MiddleSexGorge. First debuted in 1990, MiddleSexGorge is choreographer Stephen Petronio’s signature anthem to gender and power. With heat and volatility, MiddleSexGorge propels the dancers through space in bold, sensually charged encounters inspired by Petronio's involvement with ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in the late ’80s. The piece is set to a commissioned score by the British post-punk band, Wire. Gino Grenek, whose work with the Stephen Petronio Company spans over 17 years, was the guest artist in residence who staged the work on the dancers. This is the first time MiddleSexGorge will be performed by any university, and it is a great honor for the School of Dance students from both programs to have the opportunity to perform this technically demanding piece together.
Join us for the School of Dance Gala, March 23-25 and March 30-April 1 at the Marriott Center for Dance at the University of Utah. In addition to the evening performances there will be a 2:00 PM matinee performance both Saturdays of the run. Tickets are available online at Tickets.utah.edu, by phone at 801.581.7100 or at the door 30 minutes prior to curtain. A celebration dinner precedes the April 1 evening performance; for dinner tickets or more information please visit Dance.utah.edu.