University News

Winter Solstice Dance Concert December 2-4; Hainline Theatre

November 23, 2004

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MACOMB, IL - - University Dance Theatre (UDT) students at Western Illinois University will present their annual Winter Solstice Dance Concert Thursday, Dec. 2 through Saturday, Dec. 4 in the Browne Hall Hainline Theatre. Curtain time is 8 p.m. nightly.

The production will include six dances choreographed by students; four pieces created by faculty; and a work by guest artist Gina Gibney, who served a weeklong residency at Western this fall.

Student pieces will include “Minds,” choreographed by senior theatre major Mizue Yamazaki (Japan); “Release,” choreographed by senior physical education/exercise science and fitness major Kristin Wallgren (Arlington Hts., IL), who is president of UDT; “Petty….In the Remote Sense of the Word,” a duet by senior broadcasting major Andrea Serra (Mundelein, IL) and senior music major Jess Bliss (Vernon Hills, IL); “Addio Alleata,” choreographed by Serra; and “God’s Speed,” choreographed by senior finance major Pamela Cox (Sherman, IL).

UDT faculty co-director Heidi Clemmens will have two pieces in the production: “Skating on Thin Quicksand,” which will be adjudicated at the American College Dance Festival (ACDF) in March 2005; and “Dear Abby, My Husband Likes Cream with his Cereal,” a lighthearted duet she created with professional choreographer and dancer Kim Neal Nofsinger during her Spring 2004 sabbatical leave.

UDT co-director Candace Winters-March has choreographed an abstract piece related to personal experiences with the medical profession titled “Open Veins.” Dance instructor Denise Brakefield will have eight dancers perform her ballet “Baroque Suite,” which she premiered in 1993.

Guest artist Gibney’s piece, “Several Truths,” is a series of portraits of women who share a need to find identity, understanding and connection, while examining the vulnerability of human identity in a world of imbalance and uncertainty. The New York dancer/choreographer is the founder of Women at Work, an innovative program that uses the power of dance and creativity to give voice to domestic violence survivors.

Admission is $5 for adults; $4 for students and seniors; $3 for children between the ages of three and 12; and free for children under three years old. Tickets will be available at the door beginning at 7:30 p.m.

UDT dancers will also present an informal show of their choreography and dance at a 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 9 production in the Brophy Hall Dance Studio. Admission to this show is free.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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