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“Sevillanas y Tangos” and “Zoot Suit Gang” are among the pieces that will be presented as part of “The Fredonia Dance Ensemble in Concert” at SUNY Fredonia. The Department of Theatre and Dance production runs for three performances from April 29 to May 1 in Marvel Theatre.
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A variety of dance styles will be featured when the SUNY Fredonia Department of Theatre and Dance presents “The Fredonia Dance Ensemble in Concert” on Friday, April 29 and Saturday, April 30 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 1 at 2 p.m. in Marvel Theatre.
Tickets are $16 for the general public and $14
with student ID.
Directed by Helen Myers, director of dance at SUNY Fredonia, the concert brings together the work of seven choreographers, 32 student performers and a host of faculty and student designers and technicians. In all, approximately 100 people are involved in this production.
“This Fredonia Dance Ensemble concert is the most varied concert we have ever presented,” Myers said. “In addition to faculty works in tap, ballet, modern dance, dance/theatre, and Bollywood-style dancing, our guest choreographers have created works of flamenco dance and butoh, a Japanese dance/theatre form, for our ensemble.”
The two flamenco pieces are choreographed by guest artists Paco Antonio and Lucilene de Gues, dance faculty members at New Mexico State University. The butoh-inspired piece is choreographed by another guest artist – Lani Weissbach, artistic director of the Shen and Bones Dance Company in Erie, Pa.
Myers explained the guest artists were chosen to “broaden the experiences of the student performers, and to bring additional variety to the concert.”
“The flamenco pieces showcase the excitement and rhythmic complexity of that dance form,” she said. “The butoh-inspired piece is a theatrical dance for eight performers. Butoh began in Japan as a reaction to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and as a challenge to the traditional Japanese dance forms and the strict confines of Japanese society.”
In addition to the guest artists, the concert will feature pieces choreographed by Myers and fellow Theatre and Dance faculty members Sam Kenney, Paul Mockovak and Angelika Summerton.
“I hope that audiences are not only entertained and impressed with the caliber of this year’s concert, but also educated by being exposed to new styles of dance that are normally not presented in this region,” Myers said.
The Fredonia Dance Ensemble in Concert is part of the Lake Shore Savings Season at Rockefeller Arts Center.
Tickets are available through the SUNY Fredonia Ticket Office in the Williams Center, by phone at 716-673-3501 (1-866-441-4928) or online at www.fredonia.edu/tickets.
