Concert will showcase student choreography

Students in the Dance Program will get their dance on in the Spring Student Concert, to be held at 8 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, Feb. 26–28, in the Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space at Lathrop Hall.

The concert has been months in the making. Preparations began during the fall semester, when the students began creating, rehearsing and auditioning their works in the hopes of being selected to show their choreography in the student showcase. The concert has the topical title “Stimulus Package,” and concert organizers promise transparent performances, no entitlements and pricing to stimulate public spending.

Dances on the program include solos, duets, a trio and assorted group works. The largest work, “Concrete,” fuses modern dance with hip hop theater. “Concrete” was created by seven student choreographers and two student spoken word artists from the First Wave Ensemble.

“By working together we’ve come to really appreciate the amazing subtleties of the poetry and the poignant social and economic messages they express,” says dance and elementary education major Melissa Erickson. “Our collaboration has also led us to discover new ways of generating movement.”

The concert also includes three dances chosen to represent UW-Madison at this year’s American College Dance Festival Association’s North-Central Regional Conference to be held next month at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities: “Liquidate,” “Equator” and “seedling.”

“Liquidate” is a dance theater work for six dancers choreographed by assistant professor and concert coordinator Kate Corby. The work is set against a backdrop of contemporary electronic music and explores deconstruction and disintegration through contrasting movements.

Junior Brittany Wittmann choreographed “Equator,” a quartet that explores the push and pull of interpersonal relationships. “The piece as a whole reminds me of pinballs in an arcade game. The dancers are constantly bouncing through space, while at the same time trying to cling to safety and security,” says Wittmann.

“seedling” is a colorful and playful solo choreographed by senior Mychelin McConley. In it, she captures all the ups and downs, along with the curiosity and spontaneity, of being a little girl in a fruit orchard.

All the choreographers selected for this year’s concert are juniors and seniors from the Midwest. Wisconsin communities represented include Brookfield, Menasha, Menomonee Falls, Middleton, Milwaukee, Stoughton, Theresa, Wauwatosa and West Bend.

“These award-winning students are high achievers in the studio and in the classroom,” says Corby. “In addition to receiving numerous academic scholarships and summer awards — more than 40 between them — many are double majors and are often on the dean’s list.”

General public tickets cost $15; students and seniors pay $10. Students may attend the Thursday, Feb. 26, performance for $5. Tickets are available in advance through the Wisconsin Union Theater Box Office. Order online, by phone at 262-2201, or in person during regular box office hours. Any tickets remaining will be sold at the door in Lathrop Hall starting at 7 p.m. There is reserved seating for all concerts.

For more information on the Spring Student Concert call the Dance Program, 262-1691.