University News
WIU Dance Theatre Welcomes Alums to Dec. 3-5 Winter Concert
December 1, 2009
MACOMB, IL - - Alumni from the Western Illinois University Dance Theatre will gather at their alma mater Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 3-5 for the inaugural Winter Faculty DanceWorks/Alumni Concert and reunion. The combined dance faculty, student and alumni concert is at 7:30 p.m. nightly in the Hainline Theatre.
Audience members will be treated to an evening of "exciting dance at this traditional holiday-time concert," said Candace Winters-March, professor of dance, adviser and co-artistic director of Western's University Dance Theatre (UDT).
Alumni were asked to submit choreographed works, and five were selected for performance at least one night of the show's run. Alumni choreographers, who will also dance in various pieces, include Erin Rehberg (B.A. Journalism, 2001; MFA Interdisciplinary Arts and Media, Columbia College); Sara Parish (B.S. Kinesiology, 2004; MFA in Dance, Arizona State, 2007); Jenny Showalter (B.S. Kinesiology, 2004; MFA Dance Choreography and Performance, The College at Brockport); Terrell Davis (B.A. Political Science, 1998); and Tiffanee McPhee Arnold (B.S. Psychology, 1991; MFA Dance, Texas Woman's University).
Rehberg, who was a guest artist-in-residence with UDT this fall, is co-founder, executive director and principal artist of Core Project (http://coreprojectchicago.org) - - a movement-based interdisciplinary arts collective in Chicago in its third year. As a UDT dancer at Western, Rehberg performed in the 1998 and 2000 faculty dance pieces that were selected to go to the American College Dance Festival Association's National Gala. In 1998, she studied dance and choreography at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC, where she was later hired as the Festival's merchandising intern and director of press and marketing for the 2002 and 2003 seasons.
Rehberg's piece, "Mother Tongues," has been selected to perform at the Breaking Ground 2009 Choreographers' Showcase, Friday, Dec. 11 in Tempe, AZ; however, WIU and Macomb-area residents can preview her work at any of the Dec. 3-5 shows at WIU.
"'Mother Tongues' is a four-person piece exploring the complicated and unique relationships between mothers and daughters, through manipulated audio soundscapes and dance," Rehberg said. She will perform a solo version of this piece, which premiered last spring at Columbia College (Chicago).
Other selections choreographed by Rehberg for the show include "You Know Who's Really Funny…Me!", which will be performed nightly, and "Transient View," which will be performed Saturday (Dec. 5).
Parish, who is the artistic director/choreographer/dancer for Under Construction, in Seattle, WA, has choreographed the solo "Tracing the Waterline," and "In the Place of Convergence," with co-choreographer and dancer Showalter. Both pieces will be presented nightly.
Showalter, a resident of New York City, works on a project basis with the Bill Evans Dance Company; and her work has been shown at and commissioned for numerous venues, including the American College Dance Festival, Dance Chicago, Heidelberg Music Festival and others. She will also dance the solo, "Kilter," choreographed by Don Halquist.
Davis, who is the founder and artistic director of the Davis Contemporary Dance Company (www.davisdanceco.com) in Denver, will perform his solo, "Acceptance of Change Lost and Moving On," Thursday and Friday (Dec. 3-4). He received his professional start with the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. Davis moved to Denver, where he danced with the Cleo Parker-Robinson Dance Ensemble for six years. He was a principle dancer and served as assistant rehearsal director for the company.
McPhee-Arnold, who received Western's Department of Theatre and Dance Distinguished Alumni Award for Dance in 2007, has choreographed "May the Circle Be Unbroken: The Family Knot," a piece for four dancers, which will be performed Saturday (Dec. 5) only. Arnold is in her 10th season as a performer with Elledanceworks Dance Company in Dallas. She joined Collin College , Plano, TX, in 1997 as an associate dance professor, and was named chair of the dance department in 1998.
Resident dance faculty works include dance instructor Denise Brakefield's "Spumes and Eddies," a flowing ballet piece based on the movement of water and tides. Brakefield's other new choreography can be seen Dec. 11-12 in the School of Music's production of "Amahl and the Night Visitors."
Brakefield, Winters-March and Heidi Clemmens (co-artistic director of UDT) have teamed to choreograph a three-part work titled "Beatles Medley," which will be performed at each concert. The sections include: "All You Need is Love," "Blackbird" and "Sweet Suite Beatles."
Winters-March has set a high-energy piece, "Ep + Ek = E total," on 11 dancers, which is dedicated to the memory of Brenda Kaye Fauls. She also collaborated with music instructor Amy Cadle, the WIU Percussion Ensemble and the Modern Dance I class for the choreographed piece "Yankadi and Soko." "Yankadi is a dance of enticement and seduction, and Soko is meant for the enjoyment of the elders," said Winters-March about the piece that will be performed Thursday and Friday (Dec. 3-4).
Winters-March's final choreographed piece is "La Familia," set on Core Project-Chicago, and danced by members of Core Project, including: Rehberg, WIU alumna Sarah Manata (B.S. Recreation, Park and Tourism Administration, 2003), Christina Beile, Megan Beseth, Beth Douglas and Melanie Palmer. She said "La Familia" takes its inspiration from the movie "Like Water for Chocolate."
"I wanted to create a dance that, through movement and music, captured the flavor of the film's brilliantly constructed layers of pride, love, anger, submission, strength, joy and humor, yet keep the essence of the beautiful Mexican culture, found in the film. To that end 'La Familia' was born," she added.
Clemmens choreographed the dance "Distances" for five dancers, which will be accompanied by the Western Illinois University President's String Quartet, conducted by Richard Hughey, director of orchestral activities at Westen, with music composed by School of Music graduate student Dave Rappenecker (Burlington, IA).
A reunion reception for UDT alumni and guests will be held Saturday (Dec. 5) in the University Union Lamoine Room, following the concert. The alumni event is sponsored by UDT, the department of theatre and dance and the College of Fine Arts and Communication.
Concert tickets, $14 for the public and $12 for seniors and WIU students, may be purchased at the Hainline Theatre Box Office, call (309) 298-2900, from noon-5 p.m. weekdays, or online at wiu.edu/theatre/ut//winterconcert.php.
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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