Danstage 2015 features work of guest artist, faculty members
3/24/2015
 


A lighthearted, athletic dance created during a week-long residency by Chicago-based choreographer Autumn Eckman will be featured at Danstage 2015 at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
 

The dance piece “Yes, And…!” explores human nature and curiosity. The title is inspired by one of the basic tenets of improvisation in which actors respond to any question with a reply of “Yes, and ….” Student dancers will gesture and move to the multi-patterned musical sounds of the Barbatuques, a Brazilian percussion group. 

A concert of original choreography by faculty and guests, Danstage will be held in the Studio Theatre at the Noel Fine Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, April 10-11 and April 15-18. A matinee will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 12. 

Audiences will be seated on three sides, providing multiple views of choreography by Eckman and Department of Theatre and Dance faculty members Michael Estanich, Jeannie Hill, Joan Karlen and Scott Wirtz-Olson. 

Eckman worked with students on her piece during a week-long residency in March, supported by the College of Fine Arts and Communication Great Artists, Great Speakers series. She teaches dance at Northern Illinois University’s School of Theatre and Dance and has served as a director for Giordano Dance Chicago. She has performed and danced with groups around the country. 

“A Place at the Edge of the World to Call Our Own” was inspired by passages from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” and Estanich’s personal reflections on solitude and quiet. 

Hill’s “Celtic Peregrination” fuses elements of Irish traditional dance and music with contemporary funk and style and American tap with traditional Irish step dancing.

 The Sky, Boxed” by Karlen, reflects themes from her 2001 sabbatical travel in Argentina and New York and the post-9/11 events of the time. The dancers carry replicas of World War II signaling mirrors that serve as IDs and translate an upside-down world. 

In Wirtz-Olsen’s “Exaltation of Spirit,” dancers explore a world of spirit and dream of fanciful flight. The aerial work makes visible the give-and-take relationship between flying operator and dancers. 

Tickets are $19 for adults, $18 for senior citizens and $14 for youth. Tickets may be purchased at University Information and Tickets in the Dreyfus University Center concourse, by calling 715-346-4100 or 800-838-3378, or online at http://tickets.uwsp.edu. UW-Stevens Point students with a valid ID may purchase advance tickets for $4.50 per show or be admitted free the day of the show, if seats are still available. 

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/uwspdanstage.


Article Tags

COFAC; Vibrant