The Dance Program of the Department of Drama at the University of Virginia presents its Fall Dance Concert on December 1 and 2 at 8:00 p.m. and December 2 at 2:00 p.m. in the Culbreth Theatre.  The fall concert will feature the works of students, faculty, and guest choreographers for an evening of inventive and inspiring dance.

The Dance Program is pleased to present the work of four guest choreographers all of whom are alumni of the program.  Erika Choe, Ellen Crooks, Stéphane Glynn, and Sage Tanguay each completed the minor in dance during their time at UVA.  Ellen, Erika, and Sage each received the Ruth Caplin Award for Dance (created in 2015) upon graduation, which partially funded their residencies at UVA this fall.

Stéphane Glynn graduated in 2013 with degrees in Media Studies and Psychology along with a minor in Dance.  He received a M.F.A. in Film and Media Arts and a Graduate Screendance Certificate from the University of Utah.  He is an assistant editor and camera operator at KUED (PBS) in Salt Lake City and a freelance film editor of music videos, commercials, and short films.  His creative work is shown in Samundar, a music video for the band L’Anarchiste.  The work features UVA Dance Program alum Scotty Hardwig who is currently performing with the AXIS Dance Company in San Francisco.

Erika Choe is a New York based movement artist who is a 2015 graduate who completed her undergraduate degree through the Interdisciplinary Program with a focus on Dance, Psychology, and Arts Administration. Her piece and again carries notes of interdependency, empowering rigor, and unveiled recuperation. It aims to explore the performance of grind and subsequent restoration through contrasting movements of grit with that of tenderness. “Coming back to UVA to create on the dancers has been an incredible reminder of how nurturing and stimulating the dance program is and has impacted my dance career,” Choe said.

Ellen Crooks received a double B.A. in Political Theory and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a minor in Dance in spring 2017. In her piece, I felt it, briefly, she explores knowing and getting to know community inside of mundane life, with all of its absurdity, identity and chance.  hearts & minds by Sage Tanguay, a 2016 Drama major and Dance minor graduate, looks at the news media, politics, fake news, reality, and truth and their battle for hearts and minds…and souls.

Undergraduate student Amy Dalrymple’s piece Trouvaille was inspired by her recent studies abroad and explores how everyday activities and events have a natural beauty to them complete with unexpected joy.

UVA Dance Program Head and Artistic Director Kim Brooks Mata’s short screendance clearing was created during the Experimental Film Virginia Festival in Cape Charles in August 2017.  “I had the pleasure of working with the talented dancers from Balletto Teatro di Torino (Ballet Theatre of Turin), a professional contemporary dance company based in Turin, Italy,” Mata said.  “In the film, I am exploring the concepts of place, belonging, and memory.  What is home, what makes a home, do we carry it with us or does it reside in a location, in architecture, in objects?”

Tickets for the Fall Dance Concert can be purchased online at www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu, by calling 434-924-3376 or in person at the UVA Arts Box Office, located in the lobby of the UVA Drama Building, open Monday through Friday from noon until 5:00 p.m.  Tickets are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors, UVA Faculty/Staff, and UVA Alumni members, and $5 for students. Full-time UVA students may receive one free ticket if reserved at least 24 hours in advance of their desired performance date. 

Free parking on performance nights is available in the Culbreth Road Parking Garage, located next to the Drama Building.