Distinguished guest artists Francisco Ruvalcaba of the José Limón Dance Company and Lloyd Knight and Lorenzo Pagano of the Martha Graham Dance Company will be among the performers at the annual Department of Dance Faculty Concert scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27-28. Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Robinson Hall for the Performing Arts Belk Theater.
Ruvalcaba and Kim Jones, assistant professor of dance, will perform “Crossings,” which they recently developed in partnership; it draws from both Limón and Graham techniques. Jones danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company before coming to UNC Charlotte. “Crossings” will be performed on both the Friday and Saturday programs.
Knight and Pagano will dance “Traces,” choreographed by Jones. The work is part of a larger effort in progress; it explores the movement vocabularies of empathy and reflection. It will be performed only on Saturday’s program.
Collaboration is a hallmark of this year’s Faculty Dance Concert. In addition to the co-choreographed Crossings, works by Gretchen Alterowitz, assistant professor of dance, and E.E. Balcos, associate professor of dance, are also developed from creative partnerships.
Alterowitz’s “And how to be in two places at once” was choreographed by AGA Collaborative, a trio of artist/scholars (Alterowitz, Alison Bory and Amanda Hamp) who collaborate across geographic distance. The work draws from that long-distance creative experience to address questions about connection, intimacy and presence and their mediation through technology.
“Body Embody Body” is a contact improvisation duet performed by Balcos and guest dancer Alicia Grayson with pianist Dan Knight. Balcos and Grayson are both performers with decades of experience in contact improvisation, a form of shared-weight partnering work that was first initiated by Steve Paxton in the 1970s.
Concert tickets are $14 for adults, $9 for UNC Charlotte faculty/staff and seniors and $6 for all students and are available online or by calling 704-687-1849.