Stage lights and the audience’s eyes will be focused on Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium’s platform as student dancers perform Friday and Saturday night.
The Ohio University School of Dance will present the Winter Dance Concert, an annual concert that features works choreographed by faculty members of the School of Dance as well as guest artists.
A variety of styles will be shown through the eight pieces presented in the concert, Mickie Geller, concert coordinator and professor of choreography, said.
The concert’s styles will range anywhere from African dance, to a dance inspired by “photographs of the grounds and human remains from the Cambodian Holocaust.”
“You’ll never see a concert here where everything looks the same; everything will always look very different,” Geller said. “That’s really the hallmark and pride of our program … We’re trying to show what things interest us, and how we view the world and what excites us.”
Leah Crosby, a sophomore studying dance and one of the dancers in Geller’s duet, said being in the piece as well as another piece choreographed by members of famed dance group, Urban Bush Women, was an exciting chance to work with professionals, both inside and outside of the School of Dance.
“It is really high-quality stuff (at the concert) from people who really know what they are doing,” Crosby said.
Chengxin Wei, visiting professor of dance, has two pieces in the concert. One, “Sonos”, is inspired by composer Bach’s “Suites No. 1” and combines different artistic elements, including live cello music, juxtaposed with special lighting designs flashed on the stage as the dancers perform.
Wei’s other piece, “LuminUS”, is a solo he will be performing himself. Wei said it was written to explore the relationship and polarity between darkness and light and the only time a faculty member will be performing in this Winter Dance Concert.
“It is definitely our biggest concert of the year,” said Lauren Slivosky, a junior studying dance who is performing in Sonos, in addition to another piece. “Because all of the works are (being choreographed) from people who have been in the dance world for so much longer … there are a lot of hours put into making (the show) look as good as it can.”
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