Goucher Repertory Dance Ensemble Fall 2009 Concert

November 19, 2009 |

Goucher College's Repertory Dance Ensemble Fall Concert - scheduled for Thursday, November 19, through Saturday, November 21, in Kraushaar Auditorium - will feature choreography by guest artists Septime Webre, Seán Curran, and Jessica Lang and premiere works by Goucher faculty.

On November 19, a performance will be held at 11 a.m.; the November 20 and 21 concerts will take place at 8 p.m. Tickets for all shows are $15 general admission and $8 for students and senior citizens. Goucher OneCards will be accepted. Call 410-337-6333 for tickets.

“D-Construction” is an invigorating piece choreographed by The Washington Ballet’s Artistic Director Septime Webre. Performed en pointe with music by John Cage, it includes six female dancers.  Originally choreographed for four men, the movement challenges the female dancers’ technique, strength, and stamina while sending the audience to the edge of their seats with its unpredictable and raw movement and energy.   

Seán Curran, Goucher’s modern dance guest artist, presents “(Another) Left Exit.” Curran sets his choreography to John Cage's music and dresses some of his dancers with costumes from their own closets.

Curran is the artistic director of the Seán Curran Company in New York. His work has appeared on Broadway and at the Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for American Ballet Theatre's studio company, Denmark's Upper Cut Company, Sweden's Skänes Dance Theater, and various colleges and universities.

“Prayers,” choreographed by Ballet Guest Artist Jessica Lang, is an emotionally charged work for nine women inspired from the spiritual music of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Josquin des Prez' Mille Regret. The work was originally commissioned by New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 2008.

Lang has created and restaged her choreography for the American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Washington Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and New York City Ballet's Choreographic Institute.

Three Goucher faculty members will also début works at the concert.

Instructor Kathi Ferguson gained the rights to perform “Naina's Maidens,” a ballet portion of Mikail Ivanovich Glinka’s Russian opera Ruslan and Ludmilla, choreographed by Mikhail Fokine in 1917, from the Fokine Estate Archive. Fokine was a major figure in ballet during the early 1900s. This rarely performed work was the last that Fokine did before leaving Russia. The piece was intended to show the sorceress Naina and her maidens trying to hypnotize one of the main characters into doing their bidding.

“Life’s A Toon,” a new work choreographed by Instructor Linda Garofalo, is a contemporary theatrical work inspired by historic Warner Bros. cartoon soundtracks, character exploration, and physical comedy. It is a whimsical look at life designed to be part farce and part caricature. The work was created collaboratively with an original score by Andrew Bernstein '08 and costume design by Laura Borys '12. Research for this project was supported by a grant from Goucher's Aitchison Faculty Development Fund.

Visiting assistant professor Michael "Mikey" Thomas presents “movement activties: intraPOPulo,” a movement piece in a post-modern style representing a kaleidoscope of abstract notions of pop culture, and the matrix of activities within a society. This work is performed by 26 dancers to an original computer manipulated score.