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10.24.06

Contact: Arts at Emory, Nancy Condon, 404-727-1687

Insights and Worldviews: Emory Dance Company Fall Concert Offers It All

Release written by Anna Leo

Like any piece of art, a work of choreography reflects the inner — and outer — world of the creator. This November, the Emory Dance Company Fall Concert offers a diverse set of dance pieces, ranging from a contemporary ballet to a modern dance classic, choreographed by Emory dance faculty and Atlanta guest artists, as well as a classic piece by José Limón, and danced by the Emory Dance Company. “The character of this type of show, and how we mark its success” says Sally Radell, director of Emory’s dance program, “is that it both gives the viewer insight into the worldview of the choreographer and resonates with his or her own life experiences.” She explains that the only piece not created specifically for the Fall Concert, one that Limón, a pivotal figure in the development of modern dance, originally choreographed in 1964, is a timeless piece that is still the outcome of the creator’s desire to reflect his life experiences at the time.

The Fall Concert has four performances: Nov. 16-18, 2006, 8 p.m., and Nov. 18, 2006, 2 p.m., Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Dance Studio, Emory University (tickets: $10, $6 for discount category members and students). The number for tickets and information is 404-727-5050; the website is www.arts.emory.edu.

The performances feature dances by Atlanta guest artists Kristi Topham Petty and Armando Luna, as well as work by Emory faculty Tara Shepard Myers, Lori Teague and Gregory Catellier. A program highlight is the Limón work restaged by past members of that company. Of particular interest is the size of the casts in this concert: 10 dancers is the smallest cast, 17 the largest.

Guest artist Kristi Topham Petty, a certified movement analyst, has created a new work, “Elements,” for 10 dancers. As a movement analyst, Petty’s interests lie in the energy qualities and changes in the dynamics of movement. “The movement in this piece is primarily free flowing, weighted and full of momentum punctuated by moments of quick force or soft lingering,” she says. The movement evokes images from the physical environment — elements such as earth, water and air.

Armando Luna, principal teacher at the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education and director of the Atlanta Ballet Centre Theatre, feels that his work stems from his desire to “allow dancers to discover things about themselves.” He creates “in the moment,” using the energy of the dancers to find fresh approaches to his dance-making. His work, “Without Warning,” focuses on “how a given moment can change a life.”

Lori Teague has created a work inspired by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Her choreographic process embraces conversations among the 14 dancers that center on revolutions and a search for shared beliefs. Through the work, which features music by Bob Dylan, Teague seeks to inspire the desire for change.

Tara Shepherd Myers’s work represents her thoughts on the dance genres that have shaped her as a dancer, teacher and choreographer. She fuses jazz and modern dance idioms to reflect on her growing up in the South. The work is accompanied by an original music score composed by Kendall Simpson, the Emory Dance Program’s music operations administrator.

Faculty choreographer Gregory Catellier, who is also the Dance Program’s lighting designer, often makes dances about the personal and interpersonal. In “Anxiety Dream #237,” 10 dancers bring alive his thoughts on his dreaming life, which he refers to as “the surreal, fractured world of anxiety dreams.”

The evening is accented by a performance of an excerpt from Jose Limón’s 1964 dance “A Choreographic Offering.” Part of a 50-minute work that Limón created to honor his mentor Doris Humphrey, the section performed has been nicknamed “The Running Dance” because of its numerous entrances and exits and the speed at which the dancers move across the stage space. The staging of this work was part of a residency program sponsored by the Emory Coca-Cola Artists-in-Residence Program, which afforded Emory dance students the opportunity to study Limón’s technique for three weeks with former Limón Dance Company members Ann Vachon and Clay Taliaferro, who restaged the dance.

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