Winter Dance Concerts
January 19, 2014
The Drexel Dance and FreshDance ensembles will hold their winter concerts this week, featuring student, faculty and professional choreographed works performed by more than 60 Drexel student dancers. Choreographers include Professor Tania Isaac, Carbon Dance Theater director Meredith Rainey, Toni Renee Johnson of Maverick Dance, and Visiting Professor Leah Stein of the Leah Stein Dance Company, as well as Dance faculty choreographers Jennifer Morley, KC Chun Manning and. Miriam Giguere.
The Drexel Dance Ensemble’s winter concert, “Memento,” will be held Jan. 23, 24 and 25 at 8 p.m. the Mandell Theater (33rd and Chestnut Streets). The works of the concert focus on the subject of keepsakes and the meaning behind collecting souvenirs and memories of people and places. In addition to six student choreographers, “Memento” features professional choreographers including Drexel alumna Toni Renee Johnson ’02, founder and director of Maverick Dance, a dance company in New York City that focuses on social and outreach issues through storytelling and multi-media experiences. She will present her work “Group Contempo,” focusing on the idea that the action of individuals make communities better.
In “Memento,” the Dance Visiting Professor Leah Stein will present “Holding Time” – a piece centered on the idea of how sounds are created in space. “This piece brings together group improvisation and a variety of human sounds for a multi-sensory experience,” says Stein.
The Freshman Dance ensemble, FreshDance, will perform their winter concert, “New Adventures,” on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at 8:00 p.m. in the Mandell Theater. The performance features 25 student dancers and the choreography of three faculty and two Drexel Dance students, including the remounting of two student-choreographed works, each highlighting multi-disciplinary talents. Drexel senior Courtney Klinger, a interior design major and a dance minor, designed the set for her piece, “Counterpoise.” As part of her design, the set will feature a hanging installation of metal tubing created by Klinger. Drexel senior Avery Sohn, a graphic design major and Dance Ensemble member, utilizes her talents in animation and letter forms in her new work and Sohn designed the fabric used to create the dancer’s costumes in her piece, “Gestalt Principle.”
FreshDance: New Adventures will be presented on Friday, January 31 and Saturday, February 1 at 8:00 PM in the Mandell Theater at 33rd and Chestnut Streets.
Tickets are $10 general admission and $5 for students. Tickets may be purchased in advance at http://www.danceboxoffice.com or by calling 215-895-ARTS.
For additional information, please visit the Drexel Dance website at http://www.drexel.edu/westphal/undergraduate/DANC/.