Ohio University’s School of Dance presents the Winter Dance Concert

Celebrating a lineage of artistic inquiry and creative excellence, the Ohio University School of Dance presents the annual Winter Dance Concert for two nights only, Feb. 21–22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium.

One of the School of Dance’s largest annual productions, the concert features five works by current faculty, guest artists, and alumni, performed by undergraduate students from the School of Dance, and with lighting design by Lighting Designer/Technical Director John Bohuslawsky. Movement, spoken text, music, and themes that trace our shared human experience make the concert distinctly intimate and engaging.

This year’s guest artists include New York-based choreographer and former Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company member Alexandra Beller and OHIO alumnus and former Dayton Contemporary Dance Company member Trezon Dancy. School of Dance faculty, including Assistant Professor Christi Camper-Moore, Assistant Professor Benny Simon, and Artistic Director Travis Gatling will also present original choreography.

“The Winter Dance Concert 2020 presents the creative efforts of the faculty, students, and guest artists working together to create and perform both new and existing choreography,” Gatling said. “We hope that you will join us in celebrating the human expression through dance and its ability to inspire, transform, and move us.”

About the Work:

Beller’s “The journey here was as long as it was wide, but taller.” is the culmination of an intensive creative process in which the dancers collaboratively generated all of the movement and the text for a raucous, vigorous, and playful interrogation of how words fail dance. Using text drawn from chance improvisation, dance criticism, academia, fundraising pleas, and pedagogy, we have attempted to push movement through the sieve of language, and vice versa, to visualize what you understand from the body that language cannot utter. Music, 17           dancer/actors, one helium balloon, and a lot of words assist movement in telling an absurd story of failure and the deep human desire to be known.

“Residuum,” the newest work by Camper Moore, is set to the music of Ezio Bosso. The movement forges a visceral connection with the music to create a meditative, pulsing undercurrent that emphasizes the relationships between and among the seven dancers. The piece explores themes of connections, intersections, and centerings as a means to consider what is imparted to, and left behind in, the body when our experiences with others leave a lasting imprint.

“Cry Out,” a solo created and danced by Dancy, is a physicalized externalization of a vessel in space and thought. It represents being caught in the middle of nowhere, and the inner scream of emotion that initiates a breaking out. The dynamic movement illustrates this never-ending rite of passage, evoking an empathic response.

Simon’s “Further Responses” offers a danced interpretation of composer Caroline Shaw’s contribution to The Crossing’s evening-length choral work, “Seven Responses” (2016), itself originating in the seven cantatas of Dieterich Buxtehude’s “Membra Jesu nostri” (1680). The work investigates the themes of the crucifixion, such as sacrifice, suffering, and redemption through a contemporary lens, addressing life in the midst of global crisis, the forced displacement of people, and the healing power of holding.

Inspired by themes of duality and the undefined space in between, Travis Gatling’s “In Between Light” explores the myths and meanings we associate with the body existing in light and darkness. 

The concert is free for all OHIO students with valid ID, thanks to Arts for OHIO, and general admission is $12.

For ticketing information please call the Memorial Auditorium Ticket Office 740-593-1780.