Wednesday, March 10, 2004

SOURCE: Bala Sarasvati , 706/542-4415, bsarasva@coe.uga.edu

CORE DANCE COMPANY TO PRESENT PERFORMANCES ON UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA CAMPUS

ATHENS, Ga. – The UGA Department of Dance will present the CORE Concert Dance Company's Spring Collection 2004, March 24-27 at 8 p.m., at the New Dance Theatre, Dance Building on Sanford Drive.

For tickets call or visit the Tate Student Center Ticket Counter, 542-8074, M-F, 9-4. Prices are $8 student/senior citizen, $12 adult, and all seating is general admission.

Members of UGA’s CORE Concert Dance Company will perform three internationally acclaimed artists' dance pieces for the Spring Collection 2004. The eight-member company will demonstrate a variety of contemporary dance styles that show off their artistry, technical versatility and athleticism. The concert will open with an ICE interdisciplinary project involving the UGA Phil Glass ensemble and computer graphic art by visual artist Mark Callahan.

CORE will premiere Another Metal Garden, a postmodern dance piece choreographed by Seán Curran, UGA Center for the Humanities and Arts distinguished 2003 Guest Artist. CHA grant recipient and dance faculty member Rebecca Enghauser brought Curran to UGA for one-week residency during the fall of 2003. Curran has taught extensively at the American Dance Festival, Harvard Summer Dance Center, Bates Dance Festival, and Boston's Conservatory of Music.

Elsie Smith, formerly of Cirque de Soleil, trained and choreographed for the CORE members a second consecutive year. Smith is remembered by many for her double trapeze performances with identical twin sister Serenity in "Saltamblanco." CORE dancers will perform aerial dance in Smith's most recent premiere, Misunderstood - A Tribute to Nina Simone. This emotionally expressive work is performed Beth Lewis, Tiffany Sweat and Joseph Hutto on the "double trapeze, lyre and “aerial silk”

UGA and CORE alum Matt Kent and Emily Milam Kent, performers of the acclaimed Pilobolus Dance Theatre, returned to UGA this year to re-stage Alruane, a 1975 dance created and performed by Alison Chase (co-artistic director of Pilobolus) and Moses Pendleton (artistic director of Momix Dance Company). The dance holds historic relevance as one of the first pieces of choreography that established the imaginative Pilobolus style that has for 30 years sustained a history of inventive, daring and humorous works performed worldwide.

Professor Patty Delaney, Texas Womens' University of Dallas, one of thirty-eight Certified Dance Notators in the world attended CORE's re-staging residency in December 2003, and it was here at UGA that this piece was officially notated for historical and reconstruction purposes. Matt Kent visits the UGA Department of Dance during his eighth year of performing for stage and television audiences all over the world with the award winning Pilobolus dance company. Emily Milam Kent performs throughout the US for Pilobolus, specializing in educational outreach.

5 Degrees of Separation, choreographed by Bala Sarasvati, was first created in 2001 for CORE alum based in NYC. The piece has since been performed annually in NYC and on tour for two consecutive years by UGA CORE members. “5 Degrees” premiered at the Merce Cunningham Studio Theatre, NYC in 2001 and performed at the Jose Limon Institute, NYC in 2002 and 2003.

Inspired by Rudolf Laban’s concepts of space harmony and an original music score by Jeremy Allen, CORE dancers demonstrate technical virtuosity in their execution of ever-changing shape/spatial/dynamic configurations. The Seasons Change Again, a retro-futuristic piece was originally created for the 1996 Olympic Games ARTS '96 CORE performance. The piece is performed to an original electronic music score composed by Dr. Leonard Ball, School of Music.

Temporary Excursions with a Relative Departure in Mind is a collaborative project that involves artists and performers from music, dance and art disciplines, joined together to create and present a performance featuring original choreography, stage design, and live renditions of Philip Glass compositions. The project features original choreography by Bala Sarasvati, digital animation by visual artist Mark Callahan, and compositions by Philip Glass performed by the UGA Philip Glass Ensemble, led by Ryan Burruss, School of Music.

Members of CORE Concert Dance Company are: Heather Abernathy Hogan, Laura Henry, Joseph Hutto, Beth Lewis, Jen Ritorto, Tiffany Sweat, Valerie Waldron and Tyler Willis.

UGA Department of Dance’s CORE Concert Dance Company Spring Collection 2004 is supported by the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, UGA Student Activities Association, Center for Humanities and Arts Installation Grant, Ideas for Creative Exploration ICE Project Grant and the Friends of Dance.