Events
November 10, 2010
Emory Dance takes step with new partners in fall concert
The Emory Dance Company's fall concert features guest and faculty choreographers.
The Emory Dance Company partners with Atlanta colleges and choreographers for an eclectic fall concert, Nov. 18-20, at Emory’s Schwartz Center Dance Studio.
One of this year’s highlights is the restaging of “Shakers,” featuring student dancers from both Emory and Agnes Scott. Bridget Roosa, director of Agnes Scott’s dance program, stages and directs this 1931 modern dance classic by Doris Humphrey.
Set to traditional shaker hymns adapted by Pauline Lawrence, the dance is inspired by the simple, authentic steps and patterns of Shaker ritual. The Shaker sect—once flourishing on the East Coast—believed that one’s body could be purified from sin by dancing in a rhythmic manner, often evolving into bursts of hysterical flying and jumping.
Spelman College also joins the concert line-up. T. Lang, director of Spelman’s Dance Theatre, choreographs “Off Main, Veer Left,” based on “Push,” the brutal and redemptive novel by Sapphire. The dance investigates the physical and emotional trauma of victims of sexual abuse—portraying the characters’ emotions through both abstraction and literal movement.
For the Saturday matinee, Spelman students dance in “Count to Ten,” choreographed by Emory faculty member George Staib. Derived from exaggerated physical responses to nuisances, annoyances and our edited control of actions and thoughts, this septet explores anger and the not-so-easy task of controlling it.
Staib reflects on the collaboration with Spelman students: “I was given insight into different disciplines and cultural attachments to dance, which informed the work I created for them. Having them as guests on our EDC stage will broaden our audience's perspective on culture, and will afford our dancers the opportunity to witness an approach to moving that differs from their own.”
Other show choreographers include Atlanta Ballet principal dancer Tara Lee, along with Emory’s Lori Teague and Gregory Catellier.
Lee presents “After the Curtain,” a modern ballet for six dancers, which explores the choices an individual might make in the last moments of living in this world.
Catellier’s quartet “Chimera” uses lighting as an integral and distinctive component of the overall composition.
Teague has created a work using eight dancers, developed through the improvisation process. Teague’s dance addresses the idea of uncertainty—asking how do the random acts of nature shape who we are as individuals?
The fall concert runs Thursday, Nov. 18 through Saturday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. with an additional 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday, Nov. 20, in the Schwartz Center Dance Studio.
For tickets ($12 general public; $10 discount groups; $5 students) and details visit or call the Arts at Emory box office at 404.727.5050. A reception follows the Nov. 20 concert and proceeds from that performance will benefit the Emory Friends of Dance Scholarship Fund.
