Ann Arbor Dance Works 33rd Annual Season Performances
September 28 & 29, 2018
8:00 PM
Betty Pease Studio Theater, Dance Building
Ann Arbor Dance Works, the resident dance company of the University of Michigan Department of Dance, presents its 33nd Annual Season, featuring new, recent, and historic dance works choreographed and performed by guest artists, faculty, alumni, and students. The performances will be held on Friday, September 28th and Saturday, September 29th at 8:00 PM in the Betty Pease Studio Theater, located in the Dance Building, 1310 N. University Ct. Ann Arbor.
Tickets: $10 general public, and $7 students/seniors, and can be purchased online at https://muto.umich.edu/ or by visiting or calling the ticket office in the Michigan League, 911 N University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, (734) 763-8587. Seating is limited. Advance ticket purchase is encouraged. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the door beginning at 7:00 PM.
Directions and Parking: The Dance Building, 1310 N. University Ct. Ann Arbor, is attached to the Central Campus Recreation Building. Parking can be challenging near the Dance Building. There is limited metered street parking on N. University Ct. and Observatory St. We recommend parking in nearby Palmer parking structure. This Parking Map (PDF) indicates the parking buildings, as well as the path to the Dance Building.
Tickets: $10 general public, and $7 students/seniors, and can be purchased online at https://muto.umich.edu/ or by visiting or calling the ticket office in the Michigan League, 911 N University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, (734) 763-8587. Seating is limited. Advance ticket purchase is encouraged. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the door beginning at 7:00 PM.
Directions and Parking: The Dance Building, 1310 N. University Ct. Ann Arbor, is attached to the Central Campus Recreation Building. Parking can be challenging near the Dance Building. There is limited metered street parking on N. University Ct. and Observatory St. We recommend parking in nearby Palmer parking structure. This Parking Map (PDF) indicates the parking buildings, as well as the path to the Dance Building.
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCES:
New U-M Department of Dance faculty member Charli Brissey presents an excerpt from it’s been a long time, set to a remix of You and I by Lady Gaga. The duet, performed by Charli Brissey and Phoebe Ballard, is structured by questions of agency and hierarchy that emerge between dancer and choreographer throughout the process of creating a "solo" on another body. Experimenting with linguistic patterns of Lady Gaga and Gertrude Stein, the two performers impose impossible tasks, meticulous improvisational scores, and complex rhythmic patterns onto one another to reveal various negotiations of desire, power, and autonomy. Charli Brissey is an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and teacher who works choreographically with various technologies and materials. They have been creating performances, installations, experimental videos, and written scholarship for over fifteen years, and have been presented in various galleries, conferences, film festivals, and performance venues nationally and internationally. Brissey received a BFA in Dance & Choreography and an MFA in Kinetic Imaging from Virginia Commonwealth University, as well as a second MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
New U-M Department of Dance faculty member Charli Brissey presents an excerpt from it’s been a long time, set to a remix of You and I by Lady Gaga. The duet, performed by Charli Brissey and Phoebe Ballard, is structured by questions of agency and hierarchy that emerge between dancer and choreographer throughout the process of creating a "solo" on another body. Experimenting with linguistic patterns of Lady Gaga and Gertrude Stein, the two performers impose impossible tasks, meticulous improvisational scores, and complex rhythmic patterns onto one another to reveal various negotiations of desire, power, and autonomy. Charli Brissey is an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and teacher who works choreographically with various technologies and materials. They have been creating performances, installations, experimental videos, and written scholarship for over fifteen years, and have been presented in various galleries, conferences, film festivals, and performance venues nationally and internationally. Brissey received a BFA in Dance & Choreography and an MFA in Kinetic Imaging from Virginia Commonwealth University, as well as a second MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Serafín Aponte-Najera perform an excerpt from his solo Meditacion, inspired by the texts of Eduardo Galeano. Aponte-Najera of is a graduate and former faculty member of the National Artistic Institute Education of the Fine Arts in Mexico. Aponte also worked as a teacher for the Morelense Center of Arts and as a director for the Guanajuato Arts Center. He is a founding member of Barro Rojo Dance Company of Mexico. He created Serafin Aponte Dance Company in 2000 and Acapulco Contemporary Dance Company in 2017. Aponte has been invited to create works in Latin America, Europe, USA, and Canada. Note: Aponte will perform Friday night only.
Detroit dance artist Jennifer Harge presents a new work created collaboratively with 14 U-M dancers. It is set to music by Def Jam and Boys Don’t Cry. Jennifer Harge is the artistic director of Harge Dance Stories. She is a performer, art maker, and educator. Harge’s work lies at the intersection of movement, performance art, African American culture, and choreographies of protest. Through her work with Harge Dance Stories and as a solo performer, Harge's creative work has been presented at Washington National Cathedral, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Music Hall Center for Performing Arts, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, University of Michigan, Duke University, and Wayne State University. Harge received a MFA from University of Iowa as a Dean’s Graduate Fellow and a BFA from University of Michigan.
Modern dance trailblazer Doris Humphrey’s iconic 1928 work, Air will be performed by an ensemble of faculty, students, and alumni. The dance for five women is set to J.S. Bach’s Air for a G String. The music will be performed live by pianist and Department of Dance music director Christian Matijas Mecca. This historic work is being presented through the Dance Legacy Project - Doris Humphrey at Michigan, a new initiative directed by Jillian Hopper and Christian Matijas-Mecca. The dance has been restaged by dance artist Gail Corbin, an expert in the repertory and technique of Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. The rehearsal director is Jillian Hopper. A leading force in the development of modern dance in the US, Doris Humphrey created a technique and repertory based upon the principles of fall and recovery from gravity.
Chicago dance artists and U-M alumni Corinne Imberski and Ayako Kato will premiere a collaborative duet Northern Shadow. The work slips between what can be seen and the imagined, tracing the overlap that exists between the two. Corinne Imberski is a dance educator, performer, and choreographer who has created over fifty solo and ensemble works presented across the United States and in France, Bulgaria, and Canada. She has taught master classes and staged her commissioned choreography at universities, museums, and independent dance companies throughout the US, and has served most recently on the faculty of Northwestern University. Called “compelling to behold” by The New York Times, Ayako Kato is an award-winning dance artist originally from Yokohama, Japan. Influenced by a Japanese view of nature and the philosophy of Tao, Ayako embodies the intangible, the beauty of being as it is, as “The Way” of nature. She was a 2018 an artist-in-residence at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France. This year, she celebrated her 20th-anniversary of her company, Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape and was the inaugural Links Hall Co-MISSION Fellow 2017. For her fearless and radical experimentation, she was selected for the Players 2018: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago by Newcity Stage 2018, 3Arts Award 2016 in Dance, and a Meier Achievement Award 2016. www.artunionhumanscape.net
Dance faculty member and U-M MFA alumna Missy Beck has collaborated with U-M MFA alumna Amy Cova on the creation of a new solo, to be performed by Cova. A 2006 Maggie Allesee New Choreography Award winner and a regular contributor to Ann Arbor Dance Works, Beck has choreographed extensively for dance, theater, opera, and musical theater productions. Interested in the development of anatomically sound ballet technique, Beck has presented her research at the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science and the National Dance Educators’ Organization conference, and has been invited to present at the Performing Arts Medicine Conference. Amy Cova has produced work at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Inside/Out and throughout NYC at Dance New Amsterdam, the Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, Triskelion Arts, The Flea Theatre and The Irondale Center. Her work has been showcased at the Alvin Ailey Studio Theater, The Alchemical Theater Laboratory, the John Ryan Theater, Studio AIR, Dixon Place, Spoke the Hub, the Green Space, and the Detroit Institute of Art. Recently relocated from NYC to Michigan, Cova has taught courses at U-M and currently serves on the dance faculty of the Roeper School.
DEDICATION:
We dedicate our 33rd annual season to the memory of Shirley Axon, a much beloved friend of our Department of Dance, and a performer in several of our Ann Arbor Dance Works productions. Shirley was a co-founder of Friends of Dance and generously served at its helm for many years. She and her husband Don were continuously generous in their support of our department, providing scholarships for generations of students, which have had lasting impact in the careers of these dancers and their thousands of audience members. Shirley was passionate about dance and nature, and was an ardent advocate and leader for many environmental and arts causes in our community. She was a performer and teacher of modern dance until her death. A treasured friend to our faculty and students alike, Shirley’s beautiful dancing spirit, great generosity, and luminous smile will long live on in our memories. |
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ABOUT ANN ARBOR DANCE WORKS:
Formed in 1985, Ann Arbor Dance Works is the resident professional dance company of the University of Michigan Department of Dance. The company shares a wide-ranging repertory with audiences in an annual season and in community performances. In addition to producing works by resident faculty choreographers, the company hosts guest artists from the US and abroad. Designers, poets, videographers, visual artists, musicians and composers collaborate with company members, contributing to the creation of innovative and multi-layered works of resonance, depth, and beauty. Performers include faculty, guest artists, alumni, and Dance students. Since its inception, Ann Arbor Dance Works has produced choreography to critical and popular acclaim in New York City, throughout the Midwest, and internationally. The company has also presented several large-scale site-specific dances with a variety of Ann Arbor community partners. Artistic Director for the company is Jessica Fogel.
Formed in 1985, Ann Arbor Dance Works is the resident professional dance company of the University of Michigan Department of Dance. The company shares a wide-ranging repertory with audiences in an annual season and in community performances. In addition to producing works by resident faculty choreographers, the company hosts guest artists from the US and abroad. Designers, poets, videographers, visual artists, musicians and composers collaborate with company members, contributing to the creation of innovative and multi-layered works of resonance, depth, and beauty. Performers include faculty, guest artists, alumni, and Dance students. Since its inception, Ann Arbor Dance Works has produced choreography to critical and popular acclaim in New York City, throughout the Midwest, and internationally. The company has also presented several large-scale site-specific dances with a variety of Ann Arbor community partners. Artistic Director for the company is Jessica Fogel.