Dance in Concert to display mix of themes choreographed by various artists

Dance in Concert performances will be held Wed – Sat at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in Dunham Hall Theater

Ten pieces ranging from depicting love and death to moving boxes will be featured in Dance in Concert, held this week by the Theater and Dance Department.

Dance in Concert consists of 20 student dancers who will perform various pieces choreographed by guest artists, faculty and a student.

Jon Lehrer of Buffalo, New York; Emily Taul-Short, an alumnus and dancer with Turn of Change Dance Collective in St. Louis; and Dustin Crumbaugh of The Big Muddy Dance Co. in St. Louis are featured guest choreographers.  Pieces choreographed by faculty members Heather Harris and Lindsay Stewart will also be performed.

Dance professor Kristin Best-Kinscherff, also artistic director for the Dance in Concert, said each piece will be different from the next — “lyrical in movement, strong and powerful to athletic.”

The piece “The Alliance,” according to Best-Kinscherff, is “upbeat and athletic,” about community and is choreographed by Lehrer, who worked with students since last April on the piece.

Best-Kinscherff said it was an honor and a wonderful experience for the students to work with him.

“He’s an esteemed teacher, dancer and choreographer. He has been featured on the cover of ‘Dance Teacher’ magazine,” Best-Kinscherff said.

A piece using boxes features acrobatics choreographed by dance faculty Omar and Jennifer Olivas, dancers with the Diavolo Dance Theater based in Los Angeles.

“It’s a fun piece. They jump over them [the boxes], fall off of them, flip over them, climb them and manipulate them in all different patterns,” Best-Kinscherff said.

Senior dance major Jacque Hartman’s choreographed piece, “The Beating of His Hideous Heart” will be featured as well. Her piece won the department’s Outstanding Choreography Award last October and is based on Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. The piece is remarkable, according to Best-Kinscherff.

“The movement vocabulary in the piece is very unique and mature for such a young choreographer…the structure very interesting for audience members. The story they tell is thought-provoking and there’s several elements of surprise,” Best-Kinscherff said.

According to Best-Kinscherff, the students have worked “incredibly hard” rehearsing since November and from the beginning of the semester rehearsing “seven days a week.”

Performances will be held Wed – Sat at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in Dunham Hall Theater.

For more information, contact the SIUE Box Office at 618.650.2774

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