Friends of Brockport Dance

DANSCORE Highlights Brockport Faculty Choreography

2009-11-06T19:52:35-05:00

The College at Brockport’s Department of Dance is presenting DANSCORE, a showcase of faculty choreography and student and faculty performances of newly choreographed and re-staged pieces November 18–21, 2009, at 7:30 pm in the Hartwell Dance Theater, Hartwell Hall, Kenyon Street on the Brockport campus. Darwin Prioleau, artistic director for the concert, feels that the concert is “a virtual feast of contemporary dance.” Each piece, expertly choreographed by the nationally renowned dance faculty, demonstrates the technical and performance virtuosity of the students in the department:

James Hansen’s new piece, The Switching Yard, combines movement inspired by social dance forms and techno Latin music by Gotan Project to create complex partnering sequences and athletic movement phrases.
Mariah Maloney’s DANSCORE 2009 premiere is a Mozart inspired sextet danced by six women. Maloney brings her dancers into direct dialogue with Mozart’s piano trio, Divertimento for Nine. Her creative process invites a reflective and sensitive collaboration between herself, dancers and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s sonata musical structures of exposition, development and recapitulation. Irish Solo: Turas ("thruss") also choreographed by new faculty member Mariah Maloney, creates a vibrant solo dance infused with the mood, rhythms and textures of traditional Irish music played by Lad Lane.
Bill Evans’ PLANETARY SECRETS, originally choreographed for Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers in Canada is a contemporary dance piece for five women to haunting instrumental and vocal music by Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke, based on the Space Harmony theories of Rudolf Laban. It depicts spatial pulls and counter pulls, spatial tensions and constantly changing relationships to several geometric forms. The piece creates a mood of spacious serenity.
Bill Evans, Suzanne Oliver and Kevin Warner will perform Love Story. The dance, set to music by Vivaldi, Chopin, and John Williams, follows the fate of two lovers through courtship, marriage and dissolution.
BODY, also choreographed by Suzanne Oliver, but developed in collaboration with the dancers, springs from sensation, impression and biological fact to weave imaginative representations of “Bones,” “Blood,” and “Breath.”
Darwin Prioleau’s Trilogy, Part I explores the personal development of an individual as she finds her own voice in a new culture and is inspired by music composer/musician Dave Rivello’s Chorale.
Finally, no DANSCORE concert would be complete without a Bill Evan’s tap piece. Evans presents, YES, INDEED!, a light-hearted and entertaining rhythm tap work for nine women. The dancers create their own music with their feet, hands and voices.

Tickets are $12 General, $10/Seniors, College at Brockport Alumni, Faculty and Staff and $8/Students and are available by phone at (585) 395-ARTS or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office, 180 Holley Street, Brockport. Tickets may also be available at the Box Office in Hartwell Hall one hour prior to each performance.

Noshing on November 2nd to help new Brockport dancers learn their art

2009-10-25T12:28:14-04:00

Although funding for students in the arts has always been a challenge, Brockport Dance faculty member James Hansen has been speaking to a number of talented students and their parents during the past year who are having to postpone coming to school because of the economy and a lack of financial aid. To do something to address this, James and his partner Brian decided to host a Friends of Brockport Dance scholarship fundraiser in their home at 249 Dartmouth Street in Rochester on Monday November 2nd from 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Wine, cheese and other wonderful tidbits will be provided. All profits from this event will be used to help fall 2010 first year undergraduate students in the Department of Dance.

Come out and help support new dancers who are trying to reach their potential in Brockport's world-class Department of Dance. The tax-deductible donation for the fundraiser is $25 per person. Checks can be made out to "Friends of Brockport Dance" with “fundraiser” in the memo line, will be accepted at the event or can be mailed in advance to:

Jackie Thomas
Department of Dance
College at Brockport
350 New Campus Drive
Brockport, NY 14420

Please RSVP via email to James Hansen if you plan to attend. If scheduling prevents you from attending, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to this cause and sending it to the address above. Of course, donations larger than $25 will be happily accepted at both places as well!

Dance is a window to the soul at Brockport's Dance/Hartwell

2009-10-21T19:32:41-04:00

When creating a piece of choreography, one of the strongest foundations one can build upon is the willingness to share one’s personal story. Two candidates for master’s degrees in The College at Brockport’s Department of Dance, Rebecca M. Sproul and Kathy Diehl, have decided to do just that in DANCE/Hartwell on Thursday through Saturday, October 29-31. All performances are at 7:30 pm in the Hartwell Dance Theater, Kenyon Street, on the Brockport campus.

Sproul’s thesis, A Mermaid’s Guide to Living on Land, explores the abandonment of youth along a fantastic journey across the plains and pains of life. Inspired by mermaids, daffodils, lightning storms and the ever adventurous cowgirl, the piece was born through a creative process of improvisation and reflective poetry. Diehl based her thesis, The Grace of the Monstrous Voice on two questions: How do dance artists develop a sense of individuality and creative voice and how are issues related to identity and self-perception influenced by the student teacher relationship, and shaped by the learning environment.

This commitment to creativity is shared by the other choreographers showing works at DANCE/Hartwell: Bethany Bumbarger, Eileen Hollis, Alessia Gaetana Santoro, and graduate choreographers Vanessa Van Wormer, Andrea Vázquez (who benefits from the scholarship program of the National Fund for the Arts of Mexico) and Sarah Zehnder.

Tickets for DANCE/Hartwell are $12 General, $10 Seniors, College at Brockport Faculty and Staff and $8 Students. They are available by phone at (585) 395-ARTS or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office, 180 Holley Street, Brockport. Tickets may also be available at the Box Office in Hartwell Hall one hour prior to each performance.

Dance/Strasser Concert Featuring Original Works by Brockport Students

2009-10-10T16:28:49-04:00

More than any other concert presented by The College at Brockport’s Department of Dance, DANCE/Strasser involves the audience as a part of the creative process. Each performance is followed by a talkback during which comments from the audience can help the choreographers further enrich their pieces.The performances of these newly choreographed student works will be Tuesday through Thursday, October 13–15, 2009, at 7:30 pm in the Rose L. Strasser Studio, Hartwell Hall, Kenyon Street, on the Brockport campus.

Mariah Maloney, the artistic director for the concert, feels “without an audience, performers would be performing in a vacuum.” is well aware of the process, having been a guest artist at the College, and now returning as a member of the faculty. Watching the pieces in DANCE/Strasser take form, she sees the choreographers’ dedication: “each work is approached with such artistry and commitment.” Choreographers showing works include Sarah Elizabeth Bennett, Trent Furnace, Rebecca McArthur, Devon Monin, Jessica Moore, Zurisaday Moreno, Kathleen Reagan, Maggi An Wilson and Mariko Yamada.

Tickets are $12 General, $10/Seniors, College at Brockport Faculty and Staff and $8/Students and are available by phone at (585) 395-ARTS or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office, 180 Holley Street, Brockport. Tickets may also be available at the Box Office in Hartwell Hall one hour prior to each performance.