The USC Dance Company will stage two performances April 28-29 at the S.C. State Museum.

The first performance is set for 6 p.m. April 28 and is part of Artista Vista, Columbia's annual gallery walk and the largest visual-arts event in the Midlands. The performance will draw from the paintings of Brian Rutenberg.

The other performance will be at 3 p.m. April 29 as part of the Congaree Art Festival.

Admission for both performances is free.

Artista Vista will be held in galleries and studios on Gervais, Lincoln, Lady, and Huger streets, between Assembly Street and the Congaree River. The State Museum is at 301 Gervais St.

Miriam Barbosa, assistant professor and artistic director of the USC Dance program, will present three works in each performance: a solo, a duet, and an ensemble piece inspired by Rutenberg's paintings. The ensemble piece will be performed by undergraduate dance majors Emily Becknell, Katherine Edge, Amanda Harring, English Nye, Caroline Privette, and Lindsey Shatzer. Guest artists Norbert Nirewicz and Sarah Coats will perform the duet. Susan Dabney and Carolyn Bolton, also dance majors, will perform the solos Friday and Saturday, respectively.

"After a long time of observing Brian Rutenberg's work intensively, I decided to capture the emotions that emanate from his abstract landscapes and transported them into the studio room sculpting the dancer's body with movements that evoke nature," said Barbosa, who choreographed all pieces in the performance.

Rutenberg, a New York-based painter, is known for his expressionist landscapes that evoke scenes of his original home in the South Carolina Lowcountry. He is artist-in-residence in the USC art department this semester.

Joseph Rackers and Marina Lomazov, piano professors at the USC School of Music, will perform the musical accompaniment.

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