Ohio University’s School of Dance to premiere six new works at the Winter Dance Concert

Ohio University’s School of Dance will present their annual Winter Dance Concert on Feb. 13 and 14, 2026, at 7 p.m. at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. 

The performance contains six new works choreographed by School of Dance faculty and national guest artists, including Teena Marie Custer and Urban Bush Women. These works present a variety of dance genres and highlight the collaborative efforts of the faculty, students and guest artists. 

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Anthony Alterio’s new work, “The Ones Who Lived...” is a large-cast piece that draws its inspiration from the rebellious spirit of 80s–90s rock ‘n’ roll and the raw power of subculture. Rooted in the history of countercultural movements, the piece explores how people find belonging among “freaks and geeks,” and how like-minded individuals discover not only community but also themselves. The choreography pulses with the urgency of live sound at a concert, unapologetic, visceral, and loud, rejecting handheld screens and curated identities in favor of unfiltered presence and connection. Structured as both release and revelation, the work embraces excess, chaos, and abandon as generative forces. Mess is not only encouraged but celebrated as a pathway to authenticity and self-discovery. The stage becomes a space of rebellion and communion, where the audience is invited to witness freedom forged through shared energy, sound, and movement. 

“The Water” is the newest work by Ricarrdo Hunter-Valentine. The work has a cast of four dancers, including both undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Dance. 

“Being, Becoming, Believing,” is a piece that was created with Urban Bush Women as part of a Collaboration Lab with first-year dance students. The process that created this work relied on Urban Bush Women’s strategy to invest in building community, trust and dedicated space for discourse on matters important to the community that they are working with. Dancers were challenged to interrogate how their individual values and identities affected how they showed up within the group. After sharing issues that were of concern to the group, dancers were prompted to create gestures, movements and phrases that embodied their own values, stories and prevailing themes. The solos, duets and small group phrases created by students were then crafted together based on common themes, juxtaposing energies and the creation of intriguing aesthetics tied together with snippets of text taken from stories shared throughout the process. The result was the building of a beautiful puzzle of students’ individual perspectives and stories weaved together through collaboration and care. 

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Developed in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, “Saint James Joy” is a choreographic inquiry into the relationship between environmental conditions and human resilience. The work, choreographed by Teena Marie Custer, reflects on the closure of street dance clubs - a loss that held particular significance for the choreographer as sites of collective movement, exchange and cultural continuity were gone, but also focuses on the rise of outdoor block parties during that time such as Saint James Joy in Brooklyn. 

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Sarah Ramey’s new work, “This won’t last forever,” is about dancing, the passage of time and what we love. Or maybe: it’s about you, the passage of time, and what you love. What passion, or hobby or weird little interest do you pursue wholeheartedly, even if no one else seems to care about it? What do you do just because you love it, and because it brings you joy? “This won’t last forever” wonders what happens when we love something—or someone—deeply and consistently, without knowing what our love will yield.  This dance is performed by School of Dance students and dancers from the local community.  

Christi Camper Moore’s “while we wait” is a new work that asks what it might mean to feel stuck, powerless or vulnerable in a world that feels chaotic. It reflects on stretches of uncertain time - moments that pause us personally and collectively. The work explores the emotional weight of waiting: its restlessness, heaviness and quiet, patient resolve. Waiting is not sitting idly. Instead, the piece envisions waiting as an act of strength: a choice to move, endure, attune and keep hoping. Through the dancers’ continuous motion, waiting becomes visible as a pulsing, relentless resilience—a way of listening with the body. The movement reminds us that waiting is not empty or passive, but active and alive. “while we wait” invites the audience to consider the steadfastness required to withstand not knowing what awaits you, and to reflect on waiting as a period when life might not be defined by grand gestures, but by togetherness, unyielding grace and remembering who we are in the meantime. 

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Tickets are $18 for general admission and are available online here. 

Admission is free to Ohio University students with a valid student ID, thanks to Arts for OHIO. Tickets are available at the door before the performance begins.  

For more information, contact the School of Dance at 740.593.1826 or dance@ohio.edu.