The Department of Music and Dance will present its annual spring concert, Dancing Uphill, Thursday and Friday, March 21 to 22 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, March 23 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. in Mann Gymnasium on the Trinity Campus. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door by cash or check. For reservations call (802) 656-2295.

Dancing Uphill features UVM students performing original works by guest artists Lois Trombley and Polly Motley, as well as the creations of faculty and fellow-student choreographers. This year, artists from both sides of the department are closely teamed, with student composers writing music in collaboration with choreographers and student musicians accompanying dancers in live performances.

According to artistic director Clare Byrne, two students are composing new pieces that include improvisation, also an element of the dance. “They stay within certain guidelines,” she says, “but each performance will be different.”

Among other experimental elements of the concert, Byrne says, Motley is working with a dancer who will be performing off stage for the majority of the piece. “It shows that dance can happen anywhere,” Byrnes says. “Choreographers aren’t limited to a flat, barren rectangle of space, they’re breaking the boundaries between audience and dancers. It’s fun and really engaging. It’s the theater of everywhere.”

 

PUBLISHED

03-11-2013
Lee Ann Cox