Closer to the Earth and Sky May 2, 2010

Closer to the Earth and Sky
Faculty Dance Concert 2010
Ellie Leonhardt, Artistic Director

April 29, 30 @ 8:00 pm, May 1 @ 8:00 pm and May 2 @2:30 pm
University Theatre
$10.00 Adults; $7.50 Students, UNT Faculty/Staff, Seniors
Box Office – 940-565-2428

The University of North Texas Department of Dance and Theater presents the 44th annual dance concert: Closer to the Earth and Sky -- Faculty Dance Concert 2010. The concert is an evening comprised of 4 dance works by UNT dance faculty and featuring “Blessed” by internationally renowned postmodern choreographer, Bebe Miller. This year's dance concert brings together elements of contemporary set design (Kenneth John Verdugo), lighting design (Adam Chamberlin), costume design (Barbara C. Cox), video projection and music, and showcases powerful choreography created with a strong collaborative spirit.
In conjunction with this year's concert, the Department of Dance and Theatre is offering a free Public Lecture with Bebe Miller to be held on Friday April 23rd at 12 noon in the Business Building, Lecture Hall 116. Dance and Theatre Alumni are invited to attend "Dessert after Dinner," a meet and greet for alum, faculty, and prospective students that will be held from 7:00 to 7:30 pm in the University Theater atrium prior to the Saturday, May 1st performance. Finally, we invite our audience to participate in a talk-back session that will be held after the show on Friday, April 30th. At the talk-back session, Robin Lakes, will speak with guest artist Sarah Gamblin on the topic of the re-staging of Bebe Miller’s choreographic work, “Blessed.”
“Blessed,” choreographed by four time Bessie award winner Bebe Miller, premiered in New York City’s Joyce Theatre by the Bebe Miller Company in 1996. This dynamic work is set to a capella music by the Australian group Café of the Gate of Salvation. “Blessed” is a work that Dance Magazine proclaims as “celebrating humanity” and addresses issues of “freedom, redemption, and faith.” “Blessed” is a reflection of the human condition with large group sections of celebration, quartets and trios that deal with relationships, intimate duets, and solos that reach to the very soul. Ms. Miller explains, “Our process includes choreographic contributions from the company. Their creative energies and input are, and remain, an integral part of each work.” Sarah Gamblin (Associate Professor of Dance at TWU) reconstructed the work presented at UNT, and Teresa Cooper, served as the Rehearsal Director.
“The Eclipse Project part 2,” premiere, choreographed by Mary Lynn Babcock, is an excerpt from a longer work unfolding the delicate existence between two spatial realms: the space of humans existing and moving in real time and celestial space as contextualized through virtual space. A metaphoric dance reveals the live body sliding from the real into the virtual: one covers the other like the travel of an eclipse-slow, steady, and gradual, yet inevitable. The electronic music is created by Dictaphone (whose composers think in terms of jazz but practice electronica) and Swod (whose evocative musical feel combines a delicate palette of crystalline piano cascades with the sort of subtle electronic landscape that pulls the heart). Brian Hernandez (UNT Music Composition graduate student) served as the audio engineer. Video design for “The Eclipse Project part 2” was the result of a collaboration with Kenneth John Verdugo.
"Not withstanding” part I (2010) and part II (premiere) choreographed by Ellie Leonhardt is an abstract ensemble piece that explores the somatic themes of inspiration, identity, separation, inclusion, intervention, regret, and resolution. The musical score combines two pieces by the Finnish composer, Kaija Saariaho. First is “Sept Papillons,” a work for solo cello that uses extended instrumental techniques to represent seven images of a transient butterfly. Interspersed with this is a sound score that includes excerpts from the poem “Oiseaux” (Birds) by Saint-John Perse and recited by French actor Amin Maalouf.
"Choking the Earth? Just Take Off Those Clothes and Join the Water in D-Flat" is choreographed by Shelley Cushman and premiered in 2009. Revision VI is a collaborative group work featuring video and prop design by Kenneth John Verdugo. The music is composed and remixed by Jesse Coulter of the hip-hop band Vortexas. This work juxtaposes the everyday hustle and bustle of the human footprint left on the earth with the beauty of the healing earth we continue to destroy. Ultimately we will all be diluted into the earth's water and swim with the whales who "sing" in D-flat, the key of the earth.
Contact Information:
Amanda Breaz
Box Office and Promotions Manager
UNT Department of Dance and Theatre
1155 Union Circle #310607
Denton, TX 76203
Box Office: 940-565-2428
Fax: 940-565-4453
amanda.breaz@unt.edu