Performing Dance Company @ U of U (SLC: March 31 - April 16)

Performing Dance Company takes the Stage
for their Spring Concert


· Performing Dance Company, Department of Modern Dance
· March 31-April 2, 14-16th, 2011
· Marriott Center for Dance, University of Utah
· www.kingtix.com
· 801.581.7100


For immediate release
Contact Sara Pickett

sara.pickett@utah.edu

March 1, 2011-- The University of Utah Department of Modern Dance is proud to announce the Spring 2011 Performing Dance Company. Performing Dance Company's spring season tackles the physically and emotionally complex works of five contemporary choreographers. The concert will feature works by faculty members Eric Handman, Satu Hummasti, Sharee Lane, and I-Fen Lin and a piece by Andrea Miller, founder of Gallim Dance in New York City. The show will run March 31 and April 14 at 5:30p.m. and April 1, 2, 15, 16 at 7:30p.m. in the Hayes Christensen Theatre in the Marriott Center for Dance on the University of Utah Campus. PDC offers a special 2 for 1 ticket for U of U faculty, staff and students on Thursday night performances.



Andrea Miller, Artistic Director and Choreographer of New York based Gallim Dance, comes to campus as guest artist to teach and choreograph in the Department of Modern Dance. Her unique experiences as a dancer with Ohad Naharin’s Ensemble Batsheva as well as her own movement investigation as a choreographer and dancer make her a highly sought after artist in dance and theater arts. Miller’s piece, Chanson, is a deeply human work that examines the dust and debris left behind by upheaval and tragedy. Inspired by the French medieval tale on heroism, crusaders and revenge called “Chanson de Roland,” Miller’s dancers, “…are adding footprints to a path well trodden by several generations of people,” she says.



No Perfect Human, by Assistant Professor Eric Handman, creates a dreamscape with slippery, fast action. The dancers take to the floor hard moving through a soundscape of 80s Britpop, opera arias and ambient grooves. They dance as if the only sane response to the 21st century is to keep moving – until you can’t.



Three dancers alternately sing, improvise, recite lines, watch each other, and occasionally dance their hearts out in Assistant Professor Satu Hummasti’s Last. Set to music by the Velvet Underground, Buddy Holly, and a Spanish lullaby, the dancers think on their feet and are aware of the duration and immediacy of the performing experience. Hummasti’s goal of this dance was for spontaneity and surprise, and you’ll find it irresistibly charming as at takes on newness at every turn.



Assistant Professor Sharee Lane drew inspiration from the power and passion of 17th century composer Marin Marais’ “Sonnerie de Ste Genevieve du Mont-de-Paris.” Lane’s evocative duet, The Realm of the Interior choreographed for two women, investigates themes of the human experience while exploring, revealing and concealing notions of power, emotions and conflict.



In Devil Circle by Instructor I-Fen Lin, sly humor and audacious visual imagination are in full play. With music by Antonio Vivaldi and Antonio Carlos Jobim, Devil Circle summons seven dancers to gather in a haunted spell. As the dance continues, the need for human connection from the perspectives of motion and emotion play out.



Stunningly performed and produced in the Hayes Christensen Theater in the Marriott Center for Dance on the University of Utah campus, PDC's concerts are always innovative and electrifying. Friday and Saturday shows begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Hayes Christensen Theatre in the Marriott Center for Dance. Thursday shows begin at 5:30 with a special 2 for 1 ticket offer for University of Utah students, faculty and staff. The show runs March 31, April 1, 2, 14, 15 and 16. Visit www.kingtix.com for tickets or call 801-581-7100. Tickets are $10 general admission and $7 for students, faculty and staff.

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