>>PREVIEW
DANCE AT NOON
University of Calgary program of dance
April 6 & 7
University Theatre (University of Calgary)
Each year, the University of Calgary program of dance ends with giving audiences a chance to watch the senior choreography students in action, with a lecture and discussion on the art of dance – Dance at Noon – and a series of performances – Dance at Night.
Dance at Noon’s workshop will include students from classes at the university and the school at Alberta Ballet. A script between dances (both by faculty members and students) will offer a unique perspective on the dancers’ performances, and an introduction to the dance program at the university.
This year, the students have worked with four different choreographers, recently performing at the Vertigo Studio Theatre and in Lethbridge. "We’ve been acting like a professional dance company, taking classes everyday," says Megan Gole, member of the Urban Dance Company, "three days a week at eko (Dance Projects), and then two at the YWCA."
The Urban Dance Company is part of a campus pilot project that introduced new classes for graduates specializing in dance performance and choreography. The same pilot program also resulted in introductory dance classes for non-dance majors and senior citizens at Calgary’s YWCA. The company has worked on projects with three prominent choreographers – Toronto’s Sharon Moore, Poland’s Wojciech Mochniej and Calgary’s Michèle Moss – as well as working on their own creations with master choreographer Davida Monk, all of which will be presented in Dance at Night.
"There is a lot of collaboration between us and the choreographers," says Gole. "They set movement on us, but then we as interpreters would be able to bring our own style to it. So, in a lot of ways it was more like a collaboration than someone dictating a movement to you. We’ve been working on solos with Davida Monk for the past couple of weeks, and we’re just trying to develop our own movement vocabulary and our own voice."
Company member Naomi Brand is bringing one of her solo works to Dance at Night, entitled Angled as it Approaches. The piece is set to contemporary music by composer Hope Lee.
"Right now the movement is really what’s initiating the solo. It’s not necessarily that it has a narrative on top of it, or motivating it – we’ve been working to develop choreography from the movement itself. It’s about the relationship between the music and the choreography," Brand says. |
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