“Brown Bag” sneak previews of Dance Downtown are scheduled at the OSU Urban Arts Space, 50 W Town St. Wednesdays, April 22 & 29 at noon. Both events are free.
Face time with the dancers! Throughout the month of April rehearsals for the May concert will be open to the public. Monday – Thursday, 12:30-2:30pm. Studios 1, 2 & 3 in Sullivant Hall. Enter the northwest doors facing the oval and follow the signs.
Community partners: Elevator Brewery and Draught Haus
Ticket holders receive 15% off food portions of bill during run of performance.
Union Café
Ticket holders receive 15% off food portions of bill during run of performance.
Still Time by Ming-Shen Ku, with projection by media artist Yau Chen.
Ming-Shen Ku, visiting artist, an active teacher, choreographer and dancer based in Taiwan, combines Western and Eastern culture and movement styles in her works. Since 2001 she has incorporated dance performance with computer-animated images. Still Time reflects her continuing interest in dance and technology, and she collaborates with visiting visual artist Yau Chen. A live camera is used in the piece to experience the work live as well as recorded. The piece begins with a distant view of humanity, then zooms in to compelling close-ups.
Ivory Dances by Melanie Bales. Music by Chopin.
An off-white take on a ballet blanc.
Melanie Bales, known for her solo performances and choreography, premiers a new group work titled “Ivory Dances” to Chopin piano pieces. With ten dancers dressed in various pale shades of ecru, bone, ivory and eggshell, the piece is a contemporary, “off-white” take on the ballet blanc. Each dance in the suite reflects the mood and character of the five pieces of music: a nocturne, a prélude, a tarantella and two mazurkas – one earthy and one wistful.
Blue Grass by Susan Hadley.
Tribute to bluegrass music played by Mark O’Connor.
Susan Hadley created Blue Grass in 1998 for the famed Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. A former principal dancer with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Hadley pays a choreographic tribute to bluegrass music played by virtuoso fiddler Mark O’Connor with other masters of this American musical genre. This congenial romp ranges from high-spirited athleticism to wistful lyricism and "touches on the ability of dance and music to chase away those double demons, death and loneliness." (Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune).
Alarums and Excursions by Victoria Uris.
Music by José Evangelista with a gamut of moods.
Victoria Uris, a former member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and internationally recognized choreographer, premieres Alarums and Excursions to string music by José Evangelista. The nine member cast dances with energy and character as befits the title, through 13 brief sections that run a gamut of moods, playfully dubbed walk the desert, glacier, flight pattern, the bumps, double duets, and 5 by 6 + 4.
