Four
Choreographers Featured in Annual MFA Concert
Northampton,
Mass.—While the
celebration of the graduates of the 35-year-old Smith Masters
of Fine Arts (MFA) in Dance program continues, it’s that
time of the season to highlight and celebrate the amazing
work of the current second-year MFAs in the crowd-pleasing,
annual MFA Thesis Dance Concert.
A scene from the MFA Dance Concert 2010. |
This year’s event,
with performances Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 10 through 12, will feature
the choreography of Stephanie Frey, Crystal Gipe Nilsson, Erin Law and Phaelon
O’Donnell.
All shows are at 8 p.m. in Theatre
14, Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts.
Stephanie
Frey has choreographed two dances. The first, an ensemble
piece, is an abstract commentary on contemporary society’s lack of direct connection
and communication. She employs continuous, high-speed movement and electronic
music to articulate the battle of conflicting priorities we choose. The second
dance is a solo that invites us to reflect upon and challenge our own struggles
with perfection and outside expectations.
Inspired from the works of artist
M.C. Escher, a dance by Phaelon O’Donnell is a composition of lively movement, whimsical
interaction, and design. A cast of four dancers explores the themes of space
and place in quartets, trios, duets, and solos, forming a collage of images that
highlight what it means to be grounded or displaced.
Crystal
Gipe Nilsson’s piece, “Not
a Box,” explores the visual metaphor and analogical juxtaposition of people–and
boxes—from many different angles: “What is a box?” she asks. “When is a box not
a box? How is a person like a box? What relationship exists between a person
and a box? What about other people’s boxes?”
In a wrestle between tenderness
and aggression, Erin Law’s dance work inquires
what is normal in human relationships, in gender expression, how arbitrary the
rules of gender are and how alternative sexualities can fight to exist within
a compulsory heterosexual matrix. The piece includes an original collaborative
sound score composed by Mauricio Abascal, Matt Murphy, and Erin Law.
Tickets
($9 adults, $5 students/seniors) can be purchased up
to two hours before the performance or by calling the box
office, 413-585-2787. All tickets must be paid for at the
time of reservation or by 4 p.m. on the afternoon of a performance
(4 p.m. on Friday for a Saturday performance). |
