The Fredonia Dance Ensemble has a well-earned reputation for entertaining audiences by displaying the diversity, beauty and strength of dance. The ensemble will build upon that reputation again this season with its annual concert from April 8 to 10 in Marvel Theatre.
Performance times are Friday, April 8 and Saturday April 9 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 10 at 2 p.m. The Fredonia Dance Ensemble is presented by the Fredonia Department of Theatre and Dance as part of the Walter Gloor Mainstage Series.
This year’s event features works choreographed by four guest artists: Debra Knapp and Ann Gavit from New Mexico State University, Tressa Gorman Crehan of the dance faculty at the University of Buffalo, and Jon Lehrer, artistic director of the internationally known Lehrer Dance.
Ms. Knapp has danced professionally with the Bill Evans Dance Company in Albuquerque, the Semperoper Ballet Company in Dresden, Germany, and many other professional dance companies. She is currently a professor and the director of dance at New Mexico State University. Ms. Gavit is the director of New Mexico State University’s Contemporary Dance Theater and has served as the director of the Pan American Dance Institute of NMSU for four years.
For the Fredonia Dance Ensemble, Knapp and Gavit worked together to set a street dance number that tells a story about the daily experiences of everyday people living in a large city.
Ms. Crehan has been a member of the dance faculty at the University of Buffalo for more than 26 years and has served as associate director of Dance and head of Dance Education and Creative Studies. In addition, she is the director of Zodiaque Dance Company.
For the Mainstage event, she set a dance piece for nine female dancers that displays the simplicity and beauty of dance and the enjoyment it brings to audiences.
Mr. Lehrer has been setting pieces for Fredonia Dance Ensemble for four years. He is the artistic director of Lehrer Dance, an internationally known dance company. He has danced for companies including the Erick Hawkins Dance Company and Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, the world’s premiere jazz dance company.
Lehrer is known for his vigorous, athletic dance style and has choreographed an athletic, modern piece for eight female dancers for this season’s Dance Ensemble concert.
Also featured will be pieces choreographed by Fredonia dance faculty members Helen Myers, Samantha Kenney, Angelika Summerton and Paul W. Mockovak.
Myers, who is the artistic director of Fredonia Dance Ensemble, created a brand new comedy piece. Kenney reset one of her well-known pieces based on 9/11, while Summerton set a pointe piece for her dancers, and Mockovak brings back one of his well-known fun dance pieces that tells a story about kids just getting out of school for the summer.
The Fredonia Dance Ensemble is sponsored by Niebel Realty as part of the Lake Shore Savings Season.
Tickets for this event are available by phone at 716-673-3501 or online at www.fredonia.edu/tickets.
