With their upcoming Spring Season engagement, playing the weekends of Feb. 17-19 and 24-26at the Marriott Center for Dance, organizers of the Performing Dance Company at the U aim for the intense as well as the provocative with technically challenging and fast-paced pieces of modern dance.
“The university provides the best avenue to expand ways of thinking,” said Brent Schneider, associate professor and company co-director.”This is the only opportunity for students and community members to experience this level of talent at such a reasonable price.”
The majority of the company’s pieces, which tackle tough conceptual issues such as social diversity, sex, relationships and even death, were choreographed by members of the U faculty. As an added bonus, the performances include a premiere from Montreal, Canada-based choreographer Jos Navas.
Audiences unfamiliar with the timbre of modern dance can expect to be challenged mentally and socially, as the dancers have been preparing to approach questions pertinent to life in the modern age.
“People are becoming divorced from movement, forgetting what the significance of even a slight gesture can mean,” said U senior and modern dance performer Matthew Grierson.
With their provocative and engaging pieces, members of the Performing Dance Company hope to remind audiences that movement is, at the very least, as significant as the time spent in front of televisions and computer screens.
The modern dance senior class has prepared a particularly special piece titled, “Hello, Goodbye, Hello” featuring all 23 senior members of the program. Inspiration for the piece was taken from actual letters written by members of the class to persons with whom the students had previously expressed frustration.