Purdue Dance Company to present Winter Works concert

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Purdue Contemporary Dance Company will present its Winter Works 2015 dance concert Dec. 11-12.

PCDC is the resident dance company in the Division of Dance, housed in the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. Performances will be held in Yue-Kong Pao Hall's Nancy T. Hansen Theatre at 7:30 p.m. each evening, with a matinee at 2 p.m. on Dec. 12.

“Once again original music was created by visual and performing arts’ sound design students for all of the seven dance works,” said Sally Wallace, professor and chair of the division of dance. “This winter’s performance includes works with large groups of bodies filling the stage with energy, as well as more intimate works filled with delicate duets. The dancers are challenged with complex patterns and high flying legs, as well as with being authentically themselves while interacting simply on this large empty stage.”

Tickets are $14 for the public, $11 for students and $7 for those 12 and younger. Tickets can be purchased at Loeb or Pao Hall box offices at 765-494-3933 or 800-914-SHOW and through Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000.

The dances are:

* Dance faculty member Carol Cunningham-Sigman’s new work “Trillion Miles” explores the avalanche of emotions that sweep over an individual when he realizes that a final moment of life is imminent. The lyric choreography depicts a journey of experiencing grief and moving toward a state of healing and acceptance.

* “The Cracked Calm,” a new work by faculty member Kathleen Hickey, examines the erosion of perfection through dynamic movement with a comedic undertone. Inspired by the iconic images of women in mid-century advertisements, this work peels back the pristine facade of those ideals and questions the layers of characters within those images.

* Faculty member Holly Jaycox created a new work titled “Inside the Space Between.” This work explores intimacy and connection, and questions how it feels to be observers, observed, and active participants in life’s drama.

* “Moving Toward One,” choreographed by dance faculty member Renee Murray, is a quintet exploring physicality found within human interactions. As the work unfolds, the choreographed movement appears to be personal yet detached, while the dancers fall in and out of connection with one another.

* Dance faculty member Mary Beth Van Dyke choreographed a new modern work, “take the bitter with the sweet,” for 11 dancers. Set to a percussion score by Purdue student Kevin Kralj, the piece explores the sense of isolation and resulting conflict one can experience while maintaining individuality in a group setting.

* Alexis Laureano, a junior in the biological engineering program with a minor in dance, created a piece for the Purdue Contemporary Dance Company. Her new work titled “stuk.” is a journey into the internal struggle present in one’s mind, portrayed with bound and restricted movement. Laureano is from Warsaw, Indiana.

* Gianna LoCoco, a senior studying psychology with a minor in dance, has created her first main stage work. “Peace By Entropy” is an investigation of oppositional movement that expresses the individual seeking balance between reaching out for help, and finding it within themselves. LoCoco is from Chicago. 

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu 

Source: Sally Wallace, 765-494-5993, sallyw@purdue.edu 

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