The Florida State University School of Dance presents “An Evening of Dance,” an annual event that highlights the creative choreography and performance skills of the school’s students and faculty.
Performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, and Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Nancy Smith Fichter Dance Theatre in Montgomery Hall, located on the FSU campus. A pre-performance discussion will be facilitated by Assistant Professor Hannah Schwadron at 6:45 p.m.
This year’s “An Evening of Dance” performances will feature compelling works from Florida State University School of Dance faculty members, including two new choreographic works and two works that are being restaged.
Associate Professor Tim Glenn will premiere his latest work, “Brella and the Old, Red Bag,” set to musical selections by Dimitri Grechi Espinoza. The cast is comprised of current students and alumni performers and features Glenn’s runway collection of 36 costumes as the dancers investigate ideas of gender fluidity and the impact of accessorizing the body. With spatial design initially conceived using the Stage Write app, this piece abstracts the spectrum of gender expression through a kinetic language of motion.
Associate Professor Ilana Goldman will present a new choreographic work, “You are not Yourself,” which focuses on five women and is set to an arresting score by internationally acclaimed-composer Stephen Montague. In this work, Goldman explores the gendered expectations and restrictions generated by modern American society and women’s liberation in shedding these judgments while finding more authentic identities.
Associate Professor Donna Uchizono’s “State of Heads” will be restaged and performed by undergraduate and graduate students. The title originated with the idea that the “heads” of states are disconnected from the “body” of the country and explores the feeling that we are in a period of waiting to see what happens. This work previously toured throughout the United States and Europe, including a special performance for the opening of the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuel Kunst, a new museum in Gent, Belgium.
Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor and Choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar has restaged her piece “Haint Blues Blu,” a performance in which the cast grapples with hauntings of the past. This work is part of Zollar’s ongoing research of The Great Migration and features six FSU School of Dance students with music by Art Blakey and Muhal Richard Abrams.
Tickets for “An Evening of Dance” performances are $18 for adults, $16 for senior citizens, $12 for children and non-FSU students and $10 for FSU students with ID. All seating is general admission. For ticket information contact the Fine Arts Ticket Office at 850-644-6500 or online at tickets.fsu.edu.
Tickets may also be purchased one hour before each performance at Montgomery Hall. The box office closes 15 minutes after the start of each performance.
To learn more about the School of Dance at FSU, visit dance.fsu.edu.