The Florida State University School of Dance will present the premiere of “3 Voices,” a three-part performance created by FSU graduate students.
The performances, which are free and open to the public, will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28 and Saturday, Feb. 29, at the Nancy Smith Fichter Dance Theatre in Montgomery Hall. Doors open 30 minutes before the start time. The performance was choreographed by Master of Fine Arts candidates Trent Montgomery, Francisco Graciano and Holly Stone as partial fulfillment of their MFA degrees in Dance.
“3 Voices” opens with “masc4masc,” Montgomery’s choreographic investigation into traditional gender roles in classical dance through the use of men on pointe and the manipulation of stereotypically gendered movement. Montgomery redefines codified dance practices by challenging gender traditions and finds his own way of existing within these strict forms to a mixture of club and classical music.
Graciano, a former principal dancer of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, reckons with the inevitable transformation of body, psychology and place in the second part of the performance, “Amor Fati.” Through his choreographic work and a short documentary film, Graciano presents the culmination of his research at FSU, drawing inspiration from the books “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell and “The Heroine’s Journey” by Maureen Murdock. The cast includes seven student dancers, as well as live accompaniment by Spanish guitarist and FSU doctoral candidate Cody Switzer.
The concert ends with “Strange Loops” by Stone, a former engineer and neuroscientist. Inspired by Douglas Hofstader’s book “Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid,” Stone uses movement set to music by J.S. Bach and Arvo Pärt to analyze how consciousness emerges from the sum of its parts. “Strange Loops” slowly grows with repetitive movement, LEGO pieces and theatrical projections to create cognition from constituent parts.
For more information, visit dance.fsu.edu.