Annual dance theater performance brings back alumni

UWRF Dance Theatre will show its 40th Annual Spring Concert this year. The concert is a family reunion of sorts with performances by current students, past alumni, faculty, and professionals all coming together to show their talents. This concert will showcase many diverse dance styles such as Modern, Hip Hop, Japanese, Peruvian, Swing, Jazz, and Contemporary dance.

Familiar faces like alumnae Jesse and Emma Hoekstra, Natsumi Kubo, and Torrion Amie will return to UWRF with their own choreographed performances. Jesse and Emma worked as a team to create a lighthearted piece titled “A Dance Break” which will flaunt styles like Swing and Lindy Hop. Natsumi Kubo has worked hard with students to fuse traditional Japanese dance with fresh new elements that will bring the UWRF concert stage to life. Torrion Amie will present a piece titled “The Power of Someone Who Saves.” This performance highlights what compassion can mean to someone who is experiencing hopelessness. 

Faculty Choreographer Mari Kline-Kluck will also introduce her performance titled “reDress.” This performance will explore the inequality women face and the pressure to achieve certain ideas. A piece titled “A Tensive Phobia” by Kline-Kluck will be restaged for this performance as well. This experience will examine the power of fear and anxiety.    

Alumnus Choreographer Natsumi Kubo has been working with students to restage “Kodo-Soran” virtually from Japan. The piece fuses traditional Japanese dance with some exciting new elements that are different from its premiere with Dance Theater in 2007.

Minneapolis’s own Danielle Ricci, a professional choreographer, will show her unique talents with a piece titled “We Know Not What We Do.” This piece displays what humans have done to the planet and demands for a change to save it. 

The concert will take place in Abbott Concert Hall in KFA Feb. 16-19 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale at marketplace.uwrf.edu or you can buy them on performance days starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets cost $5 for students and children, $8 for seniors (60+), and $10 for adults.