At the end of the fall semester, the UI Dance Company hosted an interactive workshop for students from the Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired (IESBVI) Extending Learning Program. They invited visually impaired students to visit the Space Place Theatre with their teachers for a special movement workshop and work-in-progress performance with live open Audio Description. READ MORE.
Six-year-old Extended Learning student with UIDC members Jack Delaney, Ruby Gentzler, and Madison Burkhart
In her “Bioregionalism in History, Theory, and Practice” class this fall, taught by English professor Eric Gidal, Sophia McLaughlin (MFA, choreography), used her dance perspective to the question of how to hold on to and remember the past while moving into the future. Through the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities, a yearlong partnership with Bondurant, Sophia and the other 11 students in the class worked with the Bondurant Historical Society to research the community’s origins and early years of development.
The UI Department of Dance welcomed guest artist Katy Pyle, founder and artistic director of Ballez, a company that radically reimagines ballet class, culture, and the canon with trans, non-binary and queer dancers. Pyle held a Beginner Ballez Class in Space Place Theater and hosted a talk-back to Courtney F. Powell’s documentary film Travesty.
Katy Pyle, founder of Ballez (NY), leads a ballet workshop with UI Dance Students
Brady Van Patten (MFA, choreography) served as choreographer for the Department of Theatre Art’s first mainstage production of the Spring, Clare Baron’s Dance Nation.
Dance minor, Dana Egan, recently presented her first dance film "Our Resistive Existence" at Still Inspired Future Artist's event in Chicago, IL. This piece, inspired by Samm Yu's visual art titled Pride is an Everyday Celebration, aims to be a protest against anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Iowa and across the country. Every person involved was part of the LGBTQ+ community and, through our own radical joy, this piece shows our resistance to such laws. Click here to watch Dana's dance film.
An ensemble of thirty-eight UI dancers will perform Martha Graham’s Panorama on March 29, opening GRAHAM100—a performance celebrating 100 years of the Martha Graham Dance Company—at Hancher Auditorium. Before the semester began, during a week of snowstorms and below-zero temperatures, UI student dancers collected in Halsey Hall for a week-long intensive led by Virginie Mécène, the current director of Graham 2 and program director at the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance. Since then, Katelyn Perez (MFA, performance) has been serving as the rehearsal director, leading the ensemble as they prepare to share the stage with the Martha Graham Dance Company. READ MORE.
Virginie Mécène leading UI dance students in a workshop on Graham Technique
In February, the UI Dace Company held their home concert, Dances Described in the Space Place theatre. Dances Described focused on themes of accessibility and adaptability by incorporating open and closed Audio Description—a tool for making visual or physical elements of an art experience more accessible to all audiences, but specifically those with blindness or low vision. The concert included “Winning” directed by Stephanie Miracle (Assistant Professor) with assistance from Sophia McLaughlin (MFA, choreography) and the company. Cami Rezabek (BFA), who is serving as a Research Assistant for UIDC, wrote and performed open Audio Description for the piece. The program also included “untitled” choreographed by Christorpher-Rasheem McMillan (Assistant Professor), “Graham Reflections” choreographed by Katelyn Perez (MFA, performance) in collaboration with the dancers, and “a tiny swallow” choreographed by Aaron Samuel Davis (Guest Artist).
Still images from the UIDC Home Concert, Dances Described
Cami Rezabek (BFA) was selected as the choreographer for the School of Music’s spring opera, Fierce, which is a contemporary opera with music by UI assistant professor of Jazz Studies William Menefield. The production, led by Professor Menefield, will feature an ensemble of University of Iowa singers, musicians, and dancers with production support from the Performing Arts Production Unit and Hancher Auditorium.
Jaruam Xavier (MFA, choeography) had his Thesis II Concert on March 7, 2024, at Space Place Theatre. The program features new work choreographed by Xavier. In "Sonidos Que Bailan," the synergy between two female bodies is the medium through which abstract movements evolve into a live experience, weaving a narrative through abstract choreography and Spanish, Brazilian, and American cultural backgrounds. “ORiNOKO” explores the sacred realm of the invisible. Through dynamic movements and intricate choreography, "ORiNOKO" embodies the profound values inherent in Candomblé, inviting you to witness the fusion of culture and spirituality on stage.
Lauren Short performs with live saxaphonist, Maria Torres Melgares, during Jaruam Xavier’s Thesis II Concert
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