Archive: Around Town

Aurora, New York – The Wells College Performing Arts Department will present 'Dancing Room', an informal studio concert conceived and directed by Robert D. and Henrietta T. Campbell Professor of Dance Jeanne Goddard. Performances will be presented on Monday, April 13 and Tuesday, April 14 at 7:00 pm in the Schwartz Athletic Center dance studio. There is no admission charge.

Dancing Room, performed in the studio where Wells College students take their daily classes, places the emphasis on community, on dance, and on creative process as a part of the college experience. Professor Goddard says, “This room, this floor, is an inclusive space, a familiar space, a comfortable space.” Audiences will experience original dance works “up close and personal” and have an opportunity to talk with the choreographers and the performers. “When I was awarded the Campbell professorship, I was both honored by the award and inspired,” said Goddard. “I wanted to create a particular type of dance concert that would provide for the Wells community an alternative to our more formal productions in Phipps Auditorium.” This year’s concert will be the first in a series of five.

Dancing Room showcases both student and faculty choreography, including a number of premiers. Guest artist Elizabeth Wilmot-Bishop’s tap class will perform, and students from the Women Making Dance seminar, Sarah Clark ’11, Rebecca Danis ’10, Catherine Marshall ’11, Khadeja Merenkov ’11, and Shannon Sass ’10, will show “Where I Come From,” a suite of original dance studies on the theme of character and place.

Professor Goddard will premier “And so…,” a bittersweet quintet set to Max Bruch’s haunting “Kol Nidre” that she describes as “a gift” for dancers Arianna Bickford ’12, Heather Frost ’09, Eden Kostick ’10, Iivy Murphy ’09, and Tiffany Orellana ’09. She will also restage her absurdist piece, “Those Ducks Aren’t Bobbing for Golf Balls” with baritone Steven Stull and pianist Russell Posegate performing the songs of Franz Schubert and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Mr. Posegate and Mr. Stull will perform additional music on the program, and Professor Goddard promises a choreographic tribute to her dog, Hazelnut.

Student members of the Wells Dance Ensemble are: Ryan Addario ’10, Brittany Bouchard ’11, Megan Chamberlain ’08, Michelle Chase ’11, Sara Chiochetti ’11, Mary Gooding ’10, Janin Hendry ’08, Kostick, Marshall, Murphy, Orellana, Julia Swisher ’09, and Michaela Wilson ’11.

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