Winter Dance Concert has tap, ballet, Isadora, and more

The Department of Dance will present its Winter Dance Concert this weekend, with performances in the Dance Theater starting at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7, and at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8.

In a program dedicated to the memory of dance writer and arts advocate Mae Banner, the event will showcase Skidmore students in works presented by six of the College?s dance faculty. The works reflect a wide range of styles: ballet performed to Edvard Grieg?s Holberg Suite; modern dance in a restaging of Isadora Duncan?s 1910 Valse Brillante; tap-dancing via a restaging of the Copasetic Club?s Copasetic Chair Dance; and new contemporary dance works making their performance debuts.

Among the program?s offerings are A Gathering, a new work made by visiting artist Mary Harney in tribute to Banner. Performed by 10 dances to live music in a score composed by department accompanist Carl Landa, the dance evokes the richness of life in the spirit of the klezmer music that Banner loved. In the Isadora Duncan Valse, newly restaged by Jeanne Bresciani ?72 and dance department Chair Mary DiSanto-Rose, the rhythms of a Chopin waltz constantly propel eight dancers forward or drive them back.


Studio art and music each had a hand in a new work called Stitch (for my father), created by the dance department?s Debra Fernandez, fiber artist Margo Mensing of the studio-art faculty, and recent art graduate Jordan Taler ?07. The new work sprang from Fernandez?s and Mensing?s First-Year Experience course called ?Movers and Shakers,? which studied the many ways societies use textiles. Fernandez created her own versions of ?stitching? and ?quilting? in movement patterns; Mensing and Taler designed a computer-programmed film component.

Also on the program are The Phrase, choreographed by Tina Baird, who also staged Copasetics Chair Dance;What a Wonderful World choreographed by Debra Pigliavento; and Holberg Suite from Denise Warner Limoli.

Tickets for the Winter Dance Concert performances are $10 for general admission and $5 for students and seniors. The box office opens 45 minutes before curtain time; seating is open and reservations are not accepted. For more information, call 518-580-5392.