Skidmore dancers to present winter concert
Skidmore's winter dance concert, scheduled for Friday, Dec. 7, and Saturday, Dec. 8, in the college's Dance Theater, will feature the choreography of noted guest artists Diane Coburn Bruning and Brian Brooks, as well as choreography by the department's talented faculty.
Performances are scheduled at 8 p.m. Dec. 7 and at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets, at $10 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens, will be available 45 minutes before performances. There are no advanced reservations. It is suggested that the public arrives early for best seating.
Diane Coburn Bruning, an award-winning choreographer who has worked with a number of companies throughout the U.S. and abroad, is about to begin work on a dance film short based upon two Edgar Allan Poe stories. She is collaborating with composer Daron Hagen on the project.
While at Skidmore this fall she set a work titled The Torrid Zone for the student dancers. She used 10 dancers and alumnus Jacob Goodhart, who returned to dance a pas de deux with senior Alison DeFranco. Said Debra Fernandez, professor of dance and department chair, "The piece is challenging and filled with lifts and contemporary partnering. The pas de deux portrays a troubled relationship but the surrounding movements are upbeat, rhythmic, and snazzy."
Brian Brooks has performed with his dance group, the Brian Brooks Moving Company, for the past decade throughout the U.S., Europe, and South Korea. He most recently received an award from the National Dance Project to support the development and performance tour titled Big City this year. The company was in a DANCEworks residency at the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara, Calif., last spring.
The Skidmore program features the work Descent, an exploration of falling, from the Brooks Moving Company's recent repertoire. Brooks adapted the work, originally for six dancers, to a cast of 12 Skidmore students. The dance features complex partnering and challenging rhythmic syncopation. Associate Professor of Dance Rubén Graciani said that the students enjoyed learning from Brooks. "His generosity of spirit and time with the students and cast will not soon be forgotten," added Graciani.
Other dances on the program include two by Graciani: We Fall Down, We Get Up, a group work for eight dancers; and Complete This Work Which We Began, a deconstruction of things left unsaid and moments left unattended in a relationship. This is a dance film made under the auspices of Skidmore's Faculty-Student Summer Collaborative Research Program and was recently featured in a Dance Magazine story.
In addition to The Torrid Zone, students of Fernandez will present Walkabout, a new work for 10 dancers with an original animated film by John Danison. Walkabout is a percussive romp with a movement style that is a fusion of ballet, modern, and African dance.
Artist-in-residence Mary Harney has created a new abstract piece, Network, to music by Satsuki Odamura. Harney was inspired by the "Dance/Draw" exhibit at the Tang Musuem to create a work in which the dancers swirl, twirl, and weave their way through space with seamless interconnectivity.
Mary DiSanto-Rose, associate professor of dance, will stage Polonaise Militaire, choreographed in the early 1900s by Isadora Duncan. The work portrays Athena, goddess of wisdom and courage, along with her Nikes of victory.
Performances are scheduled at 8 p.m. Dec. 7, and at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets, at $10 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens, will be available 45 minutes before performances. There are no advanced reservations. It is suggested that the public arrive early for best seating.
