Annual Dance Theatre spring concert held March 13-16 at UWRF

The UW-River Falls Dance Theatre will present its Annual Spring Concert at 7:30 p.m. on March 13-16 in the Davis Theatre in the Kleinpell Fine Arts building, according to University Communications.

The concert will consist of a unique blend of faculty, guest and student choreography offering a wide array of styles ranging from traditional dance of West Africa to contemporary modern dances presented by student members of the University Dance Theatre.

Friday and Saturday’s performances will be accompanied by professional West African Drummer Fode Bangoura, former lead drummer with the acclaimed ensembles “Les Ballets Africains” and “Les Merveilles de Guinea” of Guinea, West Africa.

Guest choreographers and dance theatre alumni Ric Suarez, Brooke Gusa, Krya Scalan and Rana Kuebker, have created pieces that explore structures and family dynamics. Mari Kline-Kluck of the UWRF dance faculty has choreographed two dances.

One of her pieces, “That Which Is Unspoken,” incorporates projected animations that seek to connect the audience to the dancers’ movement and allows the audience to experience the internal struggle expressed in the piece.

The projections are in collaboration with student dancer and visual artist Samantha Anderson and UWRF alumnus Jeffrey Cady, master projection designer and technician. Cady is one of America’s leading experts on digital projection programming.

The concert also includes the work of two professional guest artists from the Twin Cities: Christopher LaPlante and Whitney McClusky. “In the Hollow” choreographed by LaPlante, is a powerful piece utilizing explosive movement inspired by personal turmoil. McClusky has set two traditional dances from Guinea, West Africa, on members of Dance Theatre, “Kassa” a harvest dance of the Malinke people and “Sinta” a celebration dance of the Nalu people of Guinea.

“Raw and Unguarded,” the work of student choreographer Jordann Juris integrates dialogue with movement to explore and question social justice. In “Dream Dance,” created by student choreographer Emily Coulter, dancers escape reality and seek sanctuary in the joy of dreams.

The concert will include three solos, performed by student choreographers Marcus Dryer, Jacqueline Johnson and Emily Boettcher. The solos originated from individual studies in the dance composition class and have developed into completed dances.

Tickets are available through the University Box Office from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday and will also be available each performance evening beginning at 6 p.m.
The Box Office can be reached at 715-425-3114. Tickets are $10/adults, $8/seniors, and $5/students. For more information, call 715-425-3131 or email karla.k.zhe@uwrf.edu.