Spring Dance Concert: Perennial

One dancer has a second on their back, while a third lies in the backgroundDancer stands, grabbing the front of their shirtTwo dancers support a third who is jumping off a tableA dancer supports another who leans backwards, while a third leans over the secondTwo dancers spin on stageTwo dancers lie tangled on the floor while a third reaches upwardFive dancers arranged in a line, one carries another on their back, while a third leans against another.A dancer crouching on the floor grabs the leg of another, who leans forwardA dancer in a long skirt points her toeSeveral dancers sit around a tableThree dancers kick up a leg on stageSeveral dancers support a block of wood as another leans against the block

Spring Dance Concert 2018: Perennial

April 27-28, 2018
Frey Theatre at St. Catherine University, 2004 Randolph Ave, St Paul, Minn. 55105

Perennial explores, through the creative interpretation of all choreographers, a theme of enduring or continually recurring.

The following seniors’ work is featured in the concert:

  • Holley Carlson-Riddle’s work is a ballet, Once, There Was Nothing, set to Georg Philipp Telemann’s Concerto for Four Violins in D Major.
  • Karin Davey and Shaylene McCue’s A Monstrous Regiment of Women is a lively, jazzy number featuring a dinner party of women serving up murder.
  • Miranda Harris’s creation is a fusion of modern and hip-hop, titled Essential Movement or A Fundamental Dance, portraying the fluidity, chaos, and movement that occurs inside a living cell.
  • Meghan Johnson is presenting a four-piece film dance titled Phases. The style is contemporary/modern.
  • Rachel Lieberman and Maya Swope have choreographed Should Haves and Could Haves, about regret and frustration, fondness and nostalgia, and the shifting of memories over time.
  • Hannah Silverman’s piece is called You Can Close Your Eyes and explores how the anxieties of fast-paced, day-to-day life can manifest themselves in our sleep and keep us from getting the rest we need.

The following juniors’ work is featured in the concert:

  • Claire Grace has created Some Strange Happening, about loss, and the grief, guilt, and anxiety that can accompany it.
  • Grace Lan’s At a Junction of Ecstasies, inspired by the recent fever of hip hop culture in China, explores different feelings of excitement in hip hop and Chinese classical dance and tries to create an interaction between them.
  • Megan Maguire’s work combines elements from various styles of dance including modern, contemporary, and jazz and is titled Embodiment of Us.  It’s meant to express the complex experience of being human.
  • Kasia Majewski’s work is titled It explores the contradiction between the nostalgia and regret we feel but cannot always separate when we look back at our past.

Guest choreographer Michel Kouakou believes “dance can come from anywhere, and be anywhere.” Fluent in the language of dance on four continents, he draws inspiration for his technique from the aesthetic traditions of Africa, Asia, Europe, and America. Since 2003, he has been artistic director of Daara Dance, and has presented his choreography internationally in Britain, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, the Czech Republic, France, Holland, Israel, and Italy. He pursues his long-term goal of building an “artistic bridge” between his origins in Cote d’Ivoire and the United States.