Spring Dance Concert 2016

Performance Times:
Thursday, April 7, 8 p.m.
Friday, April 8, 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 9, 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Tickets available at Ohio State Theatre Box Office, (614) 292-2295.
Purchasing tickets in advance is recommended as seating is limited.

The Department of Dance presents its 2016 Spring Concert featuring work by guest artist Eddie Taketa, and the BFA completion projects of two graduating seniors, Cailin Manning and Serena Chang. Eight other works by undergraduate and graduate choreographers round out the program. A wide range of students, from first year BFAs to MFAs, will be performing over the course of four performances beginning Thursday, April 7 and concluding Saturday, April 9 in the Barnett Theatre in Sullivant Hall, 1813 N. High St.

Works featured include the following:

Eddie Taketa, guest artist, brings a collaborative improvisational process to the creation of his new group work. In this way he is fashioning a unique work based on the complex sketch generated by his group of nine dancers.

Serena Chang (BFA ‘16) presents her senior project piece Our Hour, an exploration of the cancer community through the collaboration of herself, nine dancers, and three people diagnosed with the disease. Movement has been generated based on their communal experiences in rehearsal and the choreographer’s knowledge about the genetics of the disease, creating an abstract non-narrative view into the components of cancer.

Cailin Manning’s (BFA ‘16) piece is the culmination of her senior choreographic research looking at dance through an anthropological lens. As complex human beings, we initiate movement for reasons other than survival, and the physical evolution of our bodies in correspondence to our intellectual advancement allows us to utilize these physical differences in creative and evocative ways.

Julia Ayau's (BFA ‘17) piece presents a sense of curious, playful whimsy as the three dancers vaguely embody fairy book like characters who find themselves together by chance but move easily with one another as kindred spirits.

April Biggs (MFA’18) is generating a group work that builds on the dynamics of personal space and personality as explored through the medium of contact improvisation.

Nicole Garlando (MFA ‘17) and Biag Gaongen (MFA ‘18) present Nicole & me; Biag and me in which they allow the idea of no memory and no imagination to be their creative force and re-recognize the reason of doing. 

Lilianna Kane’s (BFA ‘17) Revel in 2 explores how movement and presentation unites two bodies physically in space, and visibly in the eyes of the viewer. By exposing the bodies' potential for similarity and difference, this work aims to portray two dancing bodies that have more in common than culture tells us.

Heidi Murr’s (BFA ‘17) piece investigates the relationship between three dancers through proximity and the juxtaposition of movement and music. The contrast of unison and opposition of the dancers informs their presence as individuals within the group.

Kylee C. Smith (BFA ‘17) presents her second major choreographic work Nou Led, Nou La. Translated from Haitian Creole, the title means "We are ugly, but we are here." This dance seeks to explore and the presence, or lack thereof, of Black dancing bodies within dance historically and affirms that while we may not fit the predetermined mold, we are here.

Anna Vomacka’s (BFA ‘17) piece explores the physicalization of both self and socially imposed labels on the individual. With the use of live sound composition, she aims to create a snapshot glimpse into the lived and personal histories of each of her performers with the hope of creating a humanizing response to their individual experiences.

Kimberly Wilczak (MFA ‘17) presents Central Park A Plexus of People and Place, a hybrid dance-design piece that seeks to hold both the land and park visitors in a recreational, performative experience. 

Visit the Department of Dance for more information.