Students featured in upcoming Dance Program concert

Coping with the rigors of academia at a large research institution while simultaneously dealing with “coming of age” issues are challenges most undergraduate students face sometime during their four years on campus. But how they express their intellectual and emotional growth along with their expanded visions of the world varies greatly.

One way dancers do it is by choreographing or making dances.

Emerging choreographers in the Dance Program will share their creative works at a spring student dance concert at 8 p.m. on Thursday–Saturday, Feb. 21–23, in the Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space in Lathrop Hall.

“Topics students have chosen to explore through choreography include social injustice, building and nurturing relationships, personal loss, effective communications, and an increased awareness of the world around them,” says Marlene Skog, concert coordinator and Dance Program instructor.

The choreographers not only create their own works but then must teach their dancers how best to express that work through movement and performance.

Emily Miller, a senior from Milton, Wis., described the process of choreographing her new work, “Tried to Say.” “For me, the thought of creating a group piece was exciting. I had never before created a piece with this many dancers (seven). A group piece seems like a totally different creature than a solo because you create your own problems and then end up solving those problems throughout the piece.

“I was also excited to be the director of a work for once. It was a whole new learning experience just figuring out how to get the dancers to do what I want, whether I was portraying movements and emotions clearly enough, etc. It was exciting to see how the dancers would take what I did and make it their own,” Miller adds.

In another group work, choreographed for five dancers, senior Laura Katzman of Nashville, Tenn., explores the fluidity and need for personal relationships in “Connect and Disconnect.” Set to live music composed by alumnus Tim Russell, this work is one of two student works selected to be shown at the American College Dance Festival (ACDFA) North-Central Regional Conference hosted by the Dance Program on campus in March.

“Give,” another work chosen for ACDFA, is a group piece choreographed by senior Nicole Roerick of Fargo, N.D. In her exploration of relationships, she focused on creating stage patterns, varied sequencing and maneuvering movements in and out of spaces on the stage with her dancers.

“I tried to create (for the dancers) a sense of giving into the movement as well as giving into each other and letting the movement take them somewhere,” Roerick says.

The concert also includes the following works:

• “Continuum,” a duet choreographed by senior Julie Goodman, of Northbrook, Ill., which “explores frightening realities of our ever-changing and corrupt world.”
• “Jaded,” a solo choreographed and performed by Nicole Roerick, which addresses feelings about living in today’s world.
• “How Many Times?” a solo choreographed and performed by Emily Miller, that touches on habits, repetition of behaviors and outcomes.
• “Quiet Complication,” a solo about loss choreographed and performed by junior Ashley Selmer of Minneapolis.
• An untitled solo choreographed and performed by senior Taryn Vander Hoop, of Cedarburg, Wis.
• “Turnaround,” choreographed by dance professor Li Chiao-Ping, will also be shown. This hyperkinetically paced, group work created for students premiered at the Faculty Concert in the fall and will also be performed at the ACDFA North-Central Region Conference next month. Accompanied by the third movement of Steve Reich’s imagistic, avant-garde composition “Different Trains,” the work takes snapshot looks at a community left to rebuild itself.

Admission is $8/students and $10/general public except on Thursday when student tickets are $5. All tickets will be sold at the door.

For more information, call 262-1691, or visit the UW Dance Program.