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11.20.2005

Contact: Nancy Condon, 404.727.1687, ncondon@emory.edu
Release written by Anna Leo

“UNFOLDING” EMORY DANCE COMPANY FALL CONCERT

The Emory Dance Company’s fall concert, “Unfolding,” is highlighted by four new works, including one by Brian Reeder from the American Ballet Theater and one by Atlanta-based artist Celeste Miller. Also featured are two works from the recently presented performance by Emory faculty that are being restaged for the students. The performances are Nov. 17-19.
Reeder’s contemporary ballet for 11 dancers is set to music by Ravel, and is entitled “Waiting, Just Waiting.” The work explores, as its title succinctly suggests, the human experience of waiting for someone or something that may or may not arrive or occur. Reeder, who previously danced with such illustrious companies as New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater and Ballet Frankfurt, is currently choreographing for the American Ballet Theater Studio Company. He recently completed commissions for the Washington Ballet and Brown University, and this winter he will choreograph his first full-length ballet with the Pacifica Ballet. This fall Reeder completed a residency with the Emory Dance Program, during which he constructed the new work, taught classes and spoke about his career as part of an Emory Friends of Dance event.
Celeste Miller’s choreographic work has hinged on her ability to combine movement with text and draw on the authentic movement of the performers with whom she is working. She has influenced and mentored numerous artists during her long and successful career. Her work for Emory Dance Company, “12 Epiphanies, 1,848 Revolutions & 77 Ways to Save Ourselves,” is the beginning of a multi-year project, with Emory students being the start. Miller comments: “The idea for the piece came about when I heard the story of ‘The Pearl,’ a 52-foot schooner that was chartered by a group of 77 free and enslaved blacks in 1848 in Washington, DC. My imagination was stung with the courage and determination of these people. I asked myself, ‘What are the ways that we save ourselves? What epiphany do we have that we take action to change our lives?’” She will collaborate with Normando Ismay, Argentinean born musician, visual artist and storyteller. Ismay and Miller have collaborated for the past three years; most recently he created the score for Miller’s “Cranky Angel,” which was performed at Symphony Space in New York City in May of this year.
Emory dance faculty members Lori C. Teague and Sheri Latham also created new works for the company, each in her own genre. Latham continues to explore her interest in using the classical ballet vocabulary in new and refreshing ways. Though the duet for two women will be performed en pointe (toe shoes), she has asked the dancers to explore the broader range of movement that reaches outside the boundaries of the academy. She is collaborating with Emory graduate and media expert Stig Rasmussen to create this multimedia piece, which incorporates video. According to Latham, her choreography included in “Unfolding” explores archetypes, the nature spirit and existential realization through a dance of love, awe and whimsy.
Lori C. Teague premiers a work that will be performed again at Emory in January 2006 as a section of a larger evening-length work entitled “Doors That Open.” Staged for eight dancers in the Emory Dance Company, this dance frames individuals who have metaphorically knocked down doors, allowing or creating possibilities for others. Teague comments on her choreographic process, which often involves incorporating movement improvisation techniques: “Again, I am building movement vocabularies with the dancers, exploring themes and relationships and discovering the context our movement choices reveal.” Klimchak, a long-time composer and dance class accompanist in the Emory Dance Program, has composed a score for the work that will be partnered with dialogue.
Dance faculty members George Staib and Anna Leo each restage a work that premiered as part of the September faculty concert. Staib resets his opulent “Gargoyles” to choral music by Handel. This work cleverly visualizes the baroque music, “finding humor within the labored and meaning amidst the frivolity.” Leo restages her solo “Sun Dial,” a work that uses sound, light and movement to abstractly trace the course of a day. Music for the piece was created by music department faculty member Steve Everett. “Sun Dial” will be performed by dance honors thesis student Jessica Moore and will be performed again on March 31 and April 1, 2006, as part of her honors thesis, which investigates four distinct solos.
Performances are Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 17-19 at 8 p.m. and a matinee on Saturday, Nov. 19 at 2 p.m. in the Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Dance Studio. Tickets can be purchased by calling 404-727-5050, in person at the Schwartz Center (Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.) or online at www.arts.emory.edu.

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