Department of Drama’s Dance Program to Present Spring Dance Concert
April 20, 21, & 22 at 8:00pm in the Ruth Caplin Theatre
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA- April 12, 2023 - The Dance Program of the Department of Drama at the University of Virginia presents its Spring Dance Concert on April 20, 21, and 22 at 8:00 p.m. in the Ruth Caplin Theatre. The spring concert will feature both live and screendance works by students, faculty, and guest artists for an evening of dance that explores multiple perspectives and themes through the practice of performance.
The Dance Program is pleased to present the work of two guest choreographers this semester: Cara Hagan and Ruth Olga Sherman. Hagan is a New York based performer, choreographer, screendance maker, and curator who is currently serving as Associate Professor and Program Director for the MFA in Contemporary Theatre and Performance at The New School. Hagan is author of the book Screendance from Film to Festival: Celebration and Curatorial Practice, published in 2022 by McFarland. This spring Hagan was invited to UVA for a weeklong artist residency during which they offered multiple workshops, gave an artist talk about her work, and directed the creation of a short screendance. This work, Hypnagogia, immerses the viewer in an experience that is reminiscent of the liminal space between when we are asleep and awake. It was devised with four student dancers and cinematographer and alum Elizabeth Culbertson on location at IX Art Park The Looking Glass installation. This residency and screendance were made possible by the support of the UVA Arts Council and the Department of Drama and Dance.
Sherman holds a master’s in dance pedagogy and choreography from Mill’s College. She is currently an Artistic Associate and Choreographer for the Charlottesville Ballet. She has taught at the Gus Giordano Dance School and offered master classes nationally and internationally. While living in Berlin Sherman performed with the Schindowski Ballet and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Eastman company. This semester she taught Jazz as a Lecturer in Dance at UVA and set the work NightBirds’ Song. Sherman describes this piece “as an exploration of love and loss. It is the tender release of wounds gained along life’s journey and the sweet moments of comfort found in sharing those sorrows with others. It is a celebration of the melodies that are created through finding softness and ultimately strength through moments of solace.”
Two members of the dance faculty, Assistant Professor of Dance Katie Baer Schetlick and Associate Professor and Artistic Director of Dance Kim Brooks Mata, will also present pieces in the Spring Dance Concert. Alongside Bill Orcutt's Music For Four Guitars, Schetlick’s Dance For Four Dancers welcomes the 'riff as catharsis'. Here, dancers both feel and articulate interlaced vibrations, mediums in all senses.
Brooks Mata’s piece, The time it takes, began with the exploration of movement vocabulary that emphasized a juxtaposition of qualities. What started out as mini embodiment puzzles to challenge familiar movement patterning developed into investigations of levels of awareness of these patterns, the limitations they can carry with them, and how we might disrupt them. “I really enjoyed the opportunity to work with this trio of student dancers. The movement vocabulary and subject matter are challenging to embody, but the dancers fully committed themselves to the material and consistently re-invested in their performances. They asked great questions and worked to capture more detail with each rehearsal, which helped them to dive deeper and make the world we have built together all the richer,” Brooks Mata said.
The time it takes highlights some of the ways in which our individual and collective paths can diverge and converge, and the time it takes to make our way to the next part of our journey.
In addition to the above guest artist and faculty works, four students created original pieces for this concert. From 3rd year Alyssa Kelley’s piece We’ve Been Here Before where she “…explore[s] the tension between reality and dreams and how we might navigate between the two,” to 4th year Maria Paula Guzman’s Zēteō which she shared “…means to seek in order to find in Greek…demonstrat[ing] that there can be joy in the midst of seeking for something so earnestly,” each student has over the course of the semester found unique ways to investigate, develop, and manifest their artistic voices through the creative process.
4th year Kinesiology major and Dance minor, Sara Burtner will be presenting her solo I slept fine. Burtner describes her work as a dance that “…materializes the thoughts that keep you up when trying to fall asleep. Using white noise and excerpts of lyrics, the solo navigates between escaping the tumultuous thoughts that keep you up versus finding peace of mind.”
Gabrielle Richardson, 4th year Dance minor and Global Studies (Global Public Health) major, describes herself as a novice choreographer and videographer. When asked to speak a bit about her creative work being presented in this concert she shared, “One thing that informs my creative practice deeply is the time I spend finding refuge in nature. I am constantly inspired by the life and movement that is subtly present in the trees and how they grow or how their leaves and boughs dance in the wind. A few tableaus that came to mind for the creation of my solo [afloat (memory’s ocean) grounded (reflection’s forest)] were the sight of swans on the lake or a pond (which is also used in famous balletic imagery from my upbringing in Swan Lake and the Dying Swan solo for Anna Pavlova) and birds in flight migrating or butterflies or petals and leaves fluttering through the sky. Sitting under a willow tree. Everything around us in our natural environment has a beautiful story to tell in form and movement and I wanted to use this to inform how I would explore my movement practice’s evolution during my time at UVa and within this area’s natural wonders. This is also a continual theme for my screendance work [midday sun, sojourn at the shore], as I am trying to explore site (sight)-inspired and site-specific creative practices. I am very thankful for the support of the Miller family and the Miller Arts Scholars program for supporting my experience this summer with OrangeGrove Dance Design and Film company and with materials for my film.”
Tickets for the Spring Dance Concert can be purchased online at www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu, by calling 434-924-3376 or in person at the UVA Arts Box Office, located in the lobby of the UVA Drama Building, open Tuesday through Friday from noon until 5:00 p.m. Tickets are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors, UVA Faculty/Staff, and UVA Alumni members, and $5 for students. Full-time UVA students may receive one free ticket if reserved at least 24 hours in advance of their desired performance date.
Free parking on performance nights is available in the Culbreth Road Parking Garage, located next to the Drama Building.
