Providence, RI – Brown University Theatre proudly presents two dance concerts in Stuart Theatre to round off the 2015-16 mainstage performance season at Brown University.
The Festival of Dance 2016 concert brings together the best dance work produced by students, faculty, and professional dancers across the city over the past twelve months. The Commencement Dance concert features new work and highlights from Festival of Dance 2016 as part of Brown University’s commencement celebrations.
Festival of Dance 2016 features performances by resident dance companies, Dance Extension and New Works/World Traditions, as well as work by student companies Impulse Dance Company and Fusion Dance Company. The concert will also feature the choreography of Billy Siegenfeld ’70 and Fulbright Lecturer Priyadarshini Shome.
Performances by Dance Extension include Parsons Etude, a part of the American Dance Legacy Institute’s Repertory Etudes™ Dance Instructional Collection, curated and directed by Carolyn Adams and Julie Adams Strandberg. Repertory Etudes are short dances based on signature works of American choreographers, available to the public with unprecedented access for study, viewing, and performance. Dance Extension was created by the founding director of Dance at Brown, Julie Adams Strandberg, on the premise that the training of dancers must include the opportunity to perform, teach, and revisit masterwork.
International dance troupe New Works/World Traditions has developed a newly devised piece, Masking, a meditation on the nature of dreams. Describing the piece, choreographer Michelle Bach-Coulibaly says, “the work examines Mind looking at mind and how history shapes and distorts memory. The accompanying film score ventures into the nature of cultural hauntings and fictional realities.”
New Works/World Traditions will also perform Wasalunka. This celebratory West African Mande dance piece is steeped in the hunter societies of the Bambara peoples of Mali. Live music is performed by Malian djembefola Moussa Traore, and joun jounfola, Seydou Coulibaly. New Works/World Traditions is an international dance troupe created by Brown faculty member Michelle Bach-Coulibaly. Through research and cross-cultural exchange, the company develops provocative theatrical experiences that address important political, public health, and social landscapes.
Student-led Fusion Dance Company will perform Evolve, choreographed by Stanley Muñoz ’17. Fusion Dance Company is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic group of men and women who perform a variety of dance styles and do not conform to modern day constraints on body shape, size, dance style, and choreography. Student-choreographed work will also be on display in Darling, Who Am I For You? Choreographed by Jason Vu for Impulse Dance Company. Impulse is a hip-hop focused dance company that produces a variety of student-choreographed pieces in many different styles.
Also on stage in this year's show is a new work by visiting Fulbright Lecturer Priyadarshini Shome. Shome is an accomplished Indian classical and contemporary dancer, choreographer, and scholar with specialization in Mohiniyattam. She is a Nehru Fulbright Scholar 2015-16 from India who has been teaching at Brown University this Spring. Her piece, Ram Lila, is a presentation of the Ramayana epic, using the basic principles of classical performance of India.
As part of Brown University’s commencement 2016 activities, the Commencement Dance concert will take place on Saturday, May 28. This concert features highlights from Festival of Dance 2016 and well as new work. Put Up Your Dukz is presented with community partners Project 401 and the TAPA Charter School for the Performing Arts. The concert also features Brown University alums Becky Bass '14 and Jamal Shipman '07 singing duets from the great jazz era of Duke Ellington, Frank Loesser, and Ella Fitzgerald.
Festival of Dance 2016 is produced by Julie Adams Strandberg and runs May 5 though 8 in Stuart Theatre (75 Waterman Street, Providence, RI 02912). Performances at 8pm Thursday through Saturday. Matinee performance at 2pm on Sunday, May 8. Commencement Dance is produced by Michelle Bach-Coulibaly and takes place on Saturday, May 28 at 7pm in Stuart Theatre. Tickets for both concerts cost $15 (full price), $12 (seniors), and $7 (students).
For ticket sales and more information: call (401) 863-2838, or visit the Box Office in the Leeds Theatre Lobby (83 Waterman St, Providence), Tuesday-Friday from 12pm-4pm, or email boxoffice@brown.edu. To book online, visit: brown.edu/tickets. More information on the Brown Theatre performance season available at: brown.edu/theatre.
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If you have any questions or to schedule an interview with the producer of either concert, please contact:
Paul Margrave, Marketing Coordinator
(401) 863-2730 / paul_margrave@brown.edu / brown.edu/theatre