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KSC Faculty and Senior Choregraphers Featured in Annual Dance Concert

KEENE, N.H., 3/20/10 - Keene State College’s Theatre and Dance Department’s 37th annual An Evening of Dance concert will feature eight original works by KSC faculty and seniors and a guest artist. The performances will run April 14 to 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Theatre of KSC’s Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond.

This year’s performances continue a most eagerly awaited Keene State tradition that announces the advent of spring and presents an exciting collection of faculty, student, and guest artist choreography to inspire, enliven, and enrich the audience. Each of the eight works brings a new perspective, engaging and transporting viewers, and entertaining with the honest beauty of movement.

Works by faculty members Marcia Murdock, William Seigh, and Candice Salyers will be performed. Murdock’s In the Margin features an ensemble of nine dancers who create a landscape born from memories, both lived and imagined. One dancer attempts to see her way through, inching ever closer to acceptance of her new norm. This collage of dance is accompanied by both recorded and live music performed acapella by seniors Zack Brandon and Michael Ierardi and sophomore Riley Ahern.

Seigh’s work Waltz was created with dancers Thomas Sommo and KSC senior Shawn Ahern, recipient of the Alta Lu Townes Memorial Dance Award. Two men find themselves at a crossroads when Waltz begins. The foundation of this private duet is the rich history and deep bond they share, while the actions of their dance reveal a drive to shape uncertain futures.

Salyers’ Shatter (every heart break is a little opening) is for four dancers. Salyers collaborated with the dancers in creating a work based on a childhood memory. This dance emerges through explorations of how we grow into the people we are capable of being.

Guest artist Heidi Henderson’s I’m Still Waiting, an ensemble work for 14 dancers, is about quietly waiting; there is no specific resolution. The piece teaches patience, to both the watchers and the dancers.

Dances by four seniors, Hannah Fluet, Angie Hartley, Rebecca Midler, and Renee Giardina, will also be performed. Hartley, who represented Keene State at the American College Dance Festival Conference’s North East Regionals this spring at Boston University, has created What Is Now Known as the Belfry Inn and Bistro for six dancers. It is a dance of contrasts; depicting cynical attitudes about the Church versus the inquisitive awe that can surround faith. The title is personal to the choreographer, as it describes her place of baptism; however, the piece attempts to speak to anyone who has lost faith. KSC faculty member Craig Lindsay has designed the lights.

Midler’s The Bird in the Bones, chosen by the ACDFA adjudicators for performance in the Gala at the Conference, features an intimate trio of dancers that take the audience on a progression of the metaphorical flight of a bird. The distinct voice of this piece reflects upon the idiosyncratic evolution of this creature.

Fluet’s Ripple is a soothing and sculptural work for a sextet of dancers exploring the shape in bodies and in space and is filled with camaraderie and mutual support.

Giardina’s The Person Next to You is for a quintet of powerful dancers who support and repel each other, individually unraveling from a similar experience and the secrets they won’t share. KSC students Molly Chase and Elisabeth Rugg designed costumes for this dance, and Alex Trombley and Chris Bell designed the lighting. Murdock is artistic director for An Evening of Dance and Seigh is associate director. Jeremy Robarge designed the lighting, and Emily Dunn did the costumes. Lindsay is technical director, and Emily Dixon is stage manager.

Tickets for An Evening of Dance are $10 for the general public; $8 for KSC faculty and staff, seniors, and youth 17 and younger; and $6 for KSC students with ID. Tickets are available at the Redfern box office, 603-358-2168 or online at www.keene.edu/racbp.

Located off Wyman Way, the Redfern Arts Center is accessible to people with disabilities. To request accommodations for a disability, please call the box office at 603-358-2168 prior to the performance.

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229 Main Street
Keene, New Hampshire 03435