Purdue dance company to present spring dance concert
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue Contemporary Dance Company will present its Spring Works dance concert on April 27 and 28.
The dance company, which is housed in the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts in Yue-Kong Pao Hall, will present seven new selected works by faculty and student artists. The concert will be in the Nancy T. Hansen Theatre.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. each evening, and there also will be a 2 p.m. matinee on April 28. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for students and $6 for children 12 and under. Tickets can be purchased at all Purdue box offices (765-494-3993 or 800-914-SHOW) and through Ticketmaster (http://www.ticketmaster.com) or 765-743-5151).
"This year, our choreographers have brought in the use of technology, props, intense physical partnering and a puppet to tell their stories," says Carol Cunningham-Sigman, visual and performing arts professor and choreographer.
Spring Works performances include:
* "Unsheltered," choreographed by Cunningham-Sigman, is an interactive puppet work with a core of eight dancers. The work explores the idea of our disposable society and is illustrated through the interactions of youth, clothing, a homeless woman and a puppet. The puppet character was designed by Joel Ebarb, head of the Department of Theatre.
* "Suite Female: Parts II-VIII," presented by faculty member Rebecca Bryant, tackles issues of gender representation. The piece was honored at the American College Dance Festival in March.
* "Circuit," presented by faculty member Mary Beth Van Dyke, is a modern piece by 11 female dancers. The dance explores looping movements and movement phrases. Purdue students Leon Johnson and Dan Vanau created the piece's sound design.
* "Verses," choreographed by faculty member Sally Wallace, explores movement conversations that occur between six women who sit upon and move about a bench.
* "Infrastructure," choreographed by Andrea Larsen, a senior studying psychology, is an exploration of the strength and stability of the internal structure of a building. The dancers morph in and out of "human buildings," while their bodies adopt the characteristics of an intricate web of steel beams.
* "point-less," a work crafted by Allyson Mercer, a junior studying food science with a minor in dance, explores structure and rhythm through perspective parts of the body often overlooked in composed dance.
* "DREAM," a piece by Hillary Steckel, a senior studying industrial engineering and with a minor in dance, is about the duet that occurs between rapid eye movement and dreams during the REM cycle.
Writer: Rebekah Piotrowicz, 765-496-3006, rpiotrow@purdue.edu
Source: Karla Welchans, division of dance, 765-494-5993, kwelchan@purdue.edu