USC Dance Company
Spring Contemporary Concert
February 15-18, 2017
Drayton Hall Theatre
1214 College St.
Show Time:
7:30pm
Featuring Works By:
Bryan Arias (Complexions, ARIAS Co.)
Tanya Wideman-Davis
Thaddeus Davis
Susan Anderson
Tickets:
Students: $12
USC Faculty/Staff, Military, Seniors: $16
General Public: $18
Reserve tickets by calling
803-777-2551
Box office opens February 6.
Box office hours: Monday - Friday, 12:30pm - 5:30pm
Included in the program is a repertory that pushes the boundaries of dance, featuring original contemporary choreography by guest artist Bryan Arias (Complexions Contemporary Ballet, ARIAS Company), plus works by Professor Susan Anderson, Assistant Professor Tanya Wideman-Davis and Associate Professor Thaddeus Davis.
Arias’ work, entitled of passing time, was developed in person with the University dancers during the Fall 2016 semester, and explores the metaphysical idea of time and its impact on our understanding of life and the universe that surrounds us.
University ballet instructor Madeline Jazz Harvey, rehearsal director for the piece, says the process of creating the work was collaborative, with Arias frequently engaging the students in dialogue and allowing their contributions to impact the choreography. “Our dancers remained daring and open as they adapted to his unique movement vocabulary, a sophisticated layering of elements from social dance and classical forms,” she says.
In his celebrated career, Arias has performed with Complexions Contemporary Ballet and the Netherlands Dance Theatre, and recently formed Arias Company in New York City. His award-winning choreography has been performed by such companies as Hubbard Street 2, Germany’s Ballett Vorpommern and The Scottish Ballet.
Tanya Wideman-Davis’ still-untitled work is a collaboration with sculptor Naomi Falk, an assistant professor in the School of Visual Art and Design, and Falk’s students. The collaboration between the two disciplines came out of a course Falk is teaching on Performance and Sculpture.
Falk’s abstract sculptures will exist in the performance space, and be manipulated by the dancers to fuse the movement with the still objects. “It’s really like dance inside of an installation,” says Wideman-Davis. “The sculptures will be dispersed throughout the space at different movements in the work, so you’ll actually get a sense of seeing the work through the sculptures.”
“We really want our students to have an appreciation of design,” she adds. “Not just a love for movement, but how the entire work looks, and how to think about the practice of someone else creating something for it.”
Susan Anderson says her work, Espresso, set to Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto #3, is an adaptation of a work she has staged at both the University of Georgia and the University of Buffalo. “It’s all about music visualization,” says Anderson. “I think of the dancers as representative of soldiers, breaking out of line and then being pulled back in. It’s thought-provoking.”
Show time for the concert is 7:30pm nightly. Admission is $12 for students, $16 for University faculty/staff, military or seniors 60+, and $18 for the general public. Tickets may be reserved in advance beginning February 6th by calling 803-777-2551, or purchasing in person at the main box office, located at Longstreet Theatre (1300 Greene St.). Longstreet box office hours are 12:30 - 5:30pm, Monday - Friday. Tickets may also be purchased at the door in advance of the performance each evening. Drayton Hall Theatre is located at 1214 College St, across from the historic UofSC Horseshoe.
For more information about the USC Dance Company Spring Contemporary Concert or the dance program at the University of South Carolina, contact Kevin Bush by phone at 803-777-9353 or via email at bushk@mailbox.sc.edu.