2008 Woodie Awards
UNCG Dance Alumni showcased in Homecoming concert
Ali Duffy
Issue date: 10/2/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
One of the features of UNCG's annual Fall Fest and Homecoming week is the Alumni Homecoming Dance Concert, which took place this year on Saturday, Sept. 29th at 8:00 p.m. in the UNCG Dance Theatre. A full house anxiously awaited the choreographic work of graduate and undergraduate students invited back to UNCG to showcase their progress.
Opening the concert was a piece titled Gift, choreographed by UNCG alumna Heather Mims Kaczmarek who received a BFA in Dance in 1997. Calm and easy movement circled a present, which was fought over by a duet of women wearing loose, flowy pants and tops. One dancer "won" the gift in the end, but seemed to show remorse about the fight that eventually pushed the other dancer aside.
Untitled, I was a premiere work from 2005 MFA graduate and adjunct UNCG faculty member Christine Kiernan. A solo performed exquisitely by 2007 MFA graduate Amy Love Beasley, the work was a study in release movement vocabulary. Strong dynamic moments punctuated the flow of motion in and out of the floor. The piece did not elicit many emotions, but made the audience feel the joy of the dancing itself.
Looking Elsewhere Off the Screen, a quartet of women wearing colorful tight fitting tops and long, tattered tutus, was choreographed by 2005 BFA graduate Stephanie Blackmon Woodbeck. The dancing in this work was elegant and beautifully articulate, portraying a group of women encased in a tumultuous yet co-dependant existence with each other. Abruptly, dancers exited the stage and brought bags of chips and sodas back onstage, sat down, and watched the last remaining dancer. The ending destroyed the flow of an engaging and well-developed work, and left the audience wondering why.
After a brief intermission, Jan Van Dyke, chair of the Department of Dance and Ed.D graduate of UNCG, re-staged a work titled The Life and Times… (1991). A duet between a man and woman captured the roller coaster ride of a long relationship, and the love/hate feelings that can evolve from a lifetime of closeness. Set to Scottish Gaelic music, the piece felt reminiscent and nostalgic.
2004 BFA graduate Jahna Bobolia presented a duet excerpted from a quintet in progress titled Collapsing Elbows. Dancers clad in loose, lightly-colored pants and deep blue sleeveless tops manipulated each other evocatively, each exerting a certain power and control over the other, even if momentarily. The musical choice did not add depth to the work, although each of the selections ("Nina Simone" and "Explosions in the Sky") added new emotion to movement that was revisited.
Traves Butterworth, a 1999 MFA graduate, ended the concert with his work, Origin. Scantily-clad dancers in bright neon costumes with hair flowing, shook violently and thrashed about in this piece that seemed to rise up from the ground as it went on. Performance quality of the dancers was intense as they writhed around, making grotesque faces and twitching occasionally. Although quite memorable, the work lacked structural development and did not read as unique.
A wide variety of dance was displayed by alumni of UNCG's Dance programs, leaving the audience clearly affected by the many successful works of the evening's showcase.
Opening the concert was a piece titled Gift, choreographed by UNCG alumna Heather Mims Kaczmarek who received a BFA in Dance in 1997. Calm and easy movement circled a present, which was fought over by a duet of women wearing loose, flowy pants and tops. One dancer "won" the gift in the end, but seemed to show remorse about the fight that eventually pushed the other dancer aside.
Untitled, I was a premiere work from 2005 MFA graduate and adjunct UNCG faculty member Christine Kiernan. A solo performed exquisitely by 2007 MFA graduate Amy Love Beasley, the work was a study in release movement vocabulary. Strong dynamic moments punctuated the flow of motion in and out of the floor. The piece did not elicit many emotions, but made the audience feel the joy of the dancing itself.
Looking Elsewhere Off the Screen, a quartet of women wearing colorful tight fitting tops and long, tattered tutus, was choreographed by 2005 BFA graduate Stephanie Blackmon Woodbeck. The dancing in this work was elegant and beautifully articulate, portraying a group of women encased in a tumultuous yet co-dependant existence with each other. Abruptly, dancers exited the stage and brought bags of chips and sodas back onstage, sat down, and watched the last remaining dancer. The ending destroyed the flow of an engaging and well-developed work, and left the audience wondering why.
After a brief intermission, Jan Van Dyke, chair of the Department of Dance and Ed.D graduate of UNCG, re-staged a work titled The Life and Times… (1991). A duet between a man and woman captured the roller coaster ride of a long relationship, and the love/hate feelings that can evolve from a lifetime of closeness. Set to Scottish Gaelic music, the piece felt reminiscent and nostalgic.
2004 BFA graduate Jahna Bobolia presented a duet excerpted from a quintet in progress titled Collapsing Elbows. Dancers clad in loose, lightly-colored pants and deep blue sleeveless tops manipulated each other evocatively, each exerting a certain power and control over the other, even if momentarily. The musical choice did not add depth to the work, although each of the selections ("Nina Simone" and "Explosions in the Sky") added new emotion to movement that was revisited.
Traves Butterworth, a 1999 MFA graduate, ended the concert with his work, Origin. Scantily-clad dancers in bright neon costumes with hair flowing, shook violently and thrashed about in this piece that seemed to rise up from the ground as it went on. Performance quality of the dancers was intense as they writhed around, making grotesque faces and twitching occasionally. Although quite memorable, the work lacked structural development and did not read as unique.
A wide variety of dance was displayed by alumni of UNCG's Dance programs, leaving the audience clearly affected by the many successful works of the evening's showcase.
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