Salon-style Dance Concert spotlights Choreographers

November 3, 2014— The University of Oregon’s Department of Dance is pleased to present the 2014 Fall Feature Dance Concert. The capstone event of the popular salon-style Dance in Dialogue series, this event is the first time D.i.D. will be presented on the UO campus, and marks the culmination of works-in-progress that have been refined through the process of audience feedback.

The concert is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Nov. 21 and 22 in the Dougherty Dance Theatre on the third floor of the Gerlinger Annex on the UO campus, a wheelchair-accessible facility. Tickets are $10 general, $5 for students and seniors, available at the door or in advance from the UO Ticket Office, 541-346-4363. 
 
Dance in Dialogue is unique among Eugene dance concerts in offering a process-oriented environment. At previous events, audience members were invited to comment publicly on dance works-in-progress as they were performed, creating a unique conversation between audience and performer. 
 
“Central to D.i.D. are the concepts of improvisation, experimentation, and movement-based processes from art disciplines outside of dance,” said UO Associate Professor of Dance Shannon Mockli. Along with Margo Van Ummersen and Carolina Caballero, Mockli is one of the D.i.D. organizers. 
 
The Nov. 21-22 event at the UO will also include a question and answer session at the completion of the performance, to continue to encourage conversation about the dances. 
 
Works that will appear as part of the UO’s Dance in Dialogue event will range in content and tone. UO choreographer Taylor Theis, influenced by modern dance traditions and the Japanese movement form of Butoh, will collaborate with composer Christian Cherry and dancer Sarah Ebert on “Rumination on Birth and Decay,” a duet that exposes two singular bodies in process. 
 
Based on the sounds, imagery, and activities of cicadas, Mockli’s dance “Molt,” a quintet to music by Venetian Snares, will provoke new movement invention and explore metaphoric links to human behavior.
 
Robin Stiehm, founding artistic director of the esteemed Dancing People Company of Ashland, Ore. contributes “Slippery,” an intimate piece danced by UO alumna Veronica DeWitt and Brianna Johnson. The piece showcases the concept of intimacy in a variety of terms, from sisterhood to sexuality to care-taking.
 
Also slated to appear as part of Dance in Dialogue is “One Lane Bridge” by choreographer Sarah Nemecek in collaboration with video artist Ian Coronado and musicians Mel Stark and Matthew Svoboda, a piece that will explore people and places in Lane County. Sara Zolbrod of Eugene’s Joint Forces/DanceAbility International and an international cast of dancers will explore the horrors of war through Zolbrod’s “physical theatre” style in her piece “Precious.” In “Deconstructed Trio,” Jana Meszaros will explore whimsical and evocative themes of personal identity and relationships.