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Dance Spectrum To Showcase Faculty, International Artists
Nov. 15, 2013
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Sam Houston State University dance faculty and several guest artists will take center stage as they present their own works, and remember a late colleague, during the fall Spectrum Dance Concert Thursday through Saturday (Nov. 21-23).
Home & Away, featuring the works of Dana Nicolay, Andrew Noble, Dionne Sparkman Noble and Erin Reck, will begin at 8 p.m. each day, with a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee in the James and Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center Dance Theater.
"The purpose of Dance Spectrum is to give dance majors an opportunity to hone their craft by working with guest artists and dance faculty on challenging repertory in an atmosphere that is professional in nature,” said Sparkman Noble. “Many students go on to work with the guest artists or faculty in professional settings outside the university upon graduation.
“Dance Spectrum and other performance opportunities at Sam prepare our dance students for their future careers as dance performance artists and serves as a bridge for students from student to the professional world," she said.
The evening will also include several exciting guest artists from around the world who, throughout the semester, have set choreographic works on the students who perform in the Spectrum concert, according to Sparkman Noble.
Guest artists include Enzo Celli, of Celli Contemporary Ballet from Rome, Italy, and Amy Cain and Dawn Dippel, of Houston’s Revolve Dance Company, who worked with students during SHSU’s Dance Gallery Festival Texas; and Teoma Naccarato, from Montreal, Canada, who spent the fall semester as a visiting professor at SHSU sharing her expertise in layering interactive technology with live dance.
“Using Isadora software, Naccarato’s dance investigates relationships between sound, movement, and projection that leaves the audience with a powerful sense of gravity and space,” Noble said. “Celli’s work is set to Vivaldi music and uses classic form interlaced with human interaction to define and redefine relationships between the dancers. Cain and Dippel bring a little jazziness to the Sam stage with their saucy yet serious contemporary work.”
In addition, Gerard Theoret from Montreal, Canada, worked with SHSU dance students early in the semester to reset his marimba inspired pointe work “The Ultra Loungers.”
“This refreshing work mixes flirtatious humor with beautiful musicality to highlight the cast’s broad range of talents,” Sparkman said.
Following the Saturday evening performance, the dance department will remember late dance professor John Charles Smith with a special dedication ceremony and reception, during which James and Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center Studio 250 will be renamed “Johnny’s Studio."
Known professionally as Jonathan Charles, Smith was an SHSU alumnus, who earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in dance, and a beloved assistant professor in the SHSU Department of Dance for nearly 20 years.
He died Feb. 14, 2013, following a brief illness.
Dance Spectrum tickets are $15 for general admission, $12 for senior citizens and SHSU faculty and staff, and $5 for students. A special discount of $5 will be offered for Saturday’s matinee for SHSU faculty and staff.
For more information, or to purchase tickets contact the GPAC Box Office at 936.294.2339 or shsu.edu/boxoffice.
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