January 26, 2016—The University of Oregon’s Department of Dance will present Dance 2016, the annual faculty dance concert, at 8 p.m. on Feb. 11, 12, and 13 in the Dougherty Dance Theatre in Gerlinger Annex on the UO campus.
Concert tickets cost $12 for general admission and $8 for student and seniors, and are available in advance from the UO Ticket Office, 541-346-4363. Tickets may be available at the door except in the case of a sold out performance.
2016 is the second year the UO Department of Dance will host high school dance students from Crater Renaissance Academy of Central Point, Ore. Nearly 60 high school students will attend the Dance 2016 concert on Friday the 12th, and will enjoy a set of dance class samplers the following day on the UO campus, enriching their understanding of collegiate-level professional dance training.
Dance 2016 will feature choreographies by UO dance faculty members and by MFA candidates.
Notably, Associate Professor Walter Kennedy will present “Song of the Woman,” a 1983 solo piece by 20th century modern dance pioneer Bella Lewitzky in honor of the centennial of Lewitzky's birth this year. Kennedy is one of three people authorized by Lewitzky to restage her work. He has restaged the piece for the Dance 2016 concert with Amy Ernst, former Lewitzky dancer who originally “splendidly danced” this “moving and lyric solo” according to San Francisco Chronicle critic Marilyn Tucker. Set to an original score by Larry Attaway, the music will be performed live by UO music faculty and students in a truly exciting collaboration between the university’s music areas and dance department.
Kennedy will also offer “Panopticon,” a new work for ten women, set to music by The Books. Athleticism, containment, control and surveillance are all at play in this highly physical new work.
Additional pieces on the Dance 2016 program will include works by UO dance faculty members, including Rita Honka’s “Paul's Peace Piece,” a work for eight dancers about finding inner strength through difficult times, set on music by the Kronos Quartet; and Shannon Mockli’s “What Once was Held,” danced by nine dancers to music by the Balanescu Quartet, dramatically conjuring images of spaces being filled and emptied, a metaphor for the people, places and things that move in and out of our lives.
On offer from Brad Garner is “Anatomy of a Tropical Home,” a bricolage of music by Jason Kao Hwang and Ayman Fanous, sculpture by Daniel Firman, and animation by Eric Touchaleaume. The work’s common theme is “home,” a universal archetype comprised of many assembled parts.
MFA candidates Bryant Henderson and Lindsey Salfran will present "In the Pocket", a swing number set to music by Benny Goodman and Louis Prima. A playful exploration of dissonant and consonant musical-movement relationships, this dynamic work plays with humor and physicality by placing modern dance face-to-face with swing music and jazz elements.