What: New Choreographers Concert, featuring original dance works by senior choreography students from the Department of Dance and Theatre at the University of North Texas. Artistic director is Mary Lynn Babcock, associate professor of dance.
When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20, 21 (Friday, Saturday) and 2 p.m. matinees Nov. 21, 22 (Saturday, Sunday)
Where: University Theatre, Radio Television Film and Performing Arts Building
Cost: Tickets cost $5. Audience members can purchase tickets at the box office, which is open from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and one hour before each performance at the Radio Television Film and Performing Arts Building. For more information, call 940-565-2428, email dat-boxoffice@unt.edu or visit the Department of Dance and Theatre online.
What else: Parking is free directly behind the RTFP Building Friday through Sunday. For more information about parking on the UNT campus please visit: UNT Parking and Transportation online.
DENTON (UNT), Texas – Senior dance majors from the Department of Dance and Theatre at the University of North Texas will present their own choreographic worksat the annual New Choreographers Concert.
The performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20 and 21 (Friday and Saturday) and 2 p.m. Nov. 21 and 22 (Saturday and Sunday) at the University Theatre in the Radio Television Film and Performing Arts Building.
Sixteen graduating seniors will present their choreographic works in their first fully produced concert. The concert is a culminating event that comes out of the senior capstone course for dance majors. The students spend two and a half months developing the choreography, selecting music, working with costume and lighting designers, auditioning dancers. They also spend six to 10 hours a week in rehearsals.
The students also receive feedback from faculty at three specific dance showings before the concert.
The goal is to produce a thoughtful and artistic, mature piece that is carefully integrated with music. The dances are highly physical, technically skillful and dynamic, said Mary Lynn Babcock, associate professor of dance, and the concert's artistic director.
"The concert is a culmination of four years of work in learning about choreography. The concert is so exciting, because all the faculty get to see how much growth has occurred over the past four years, and audiences are riveted from such dynamic performances," she said. "This is the place where all their ideas for choreography come to fruition."
Most choreography is primarily modern dance, with a fusion of dance cultures around the world.
Senior dance major Whitley Green will use her work to explore history through the eyes of women and the social standards they have to comply by. The dancers will move to poet Maya Angelou's recitation of "Still I Rise."
"I make it my business to create work that I am passionate about, that reflects what I have to say," Green said. "I have a purpose past just being a body floating through space but to use this art form to bring awareness, speak life and engage the community."
Green added that the process for creating the dance is intense, "but that's the exact reason 'the process' needs to be nurtured and appreciated the most. I've had to keep the idea of experiencing a full process at the forefront of my dance journey. The process holds life, beauty and new ideas that would otherwise get neglected without it."
The program is split into two programs with eight dances each. Program A takes place Friday night and the Saturday matinee and Program B occurs Saturday night and Sunday matinee.
Two dancers, selected by faculty members, will perform in the spring Faculty Dance Concert at UNT and then at the American College Dance Association regional festival March 16-19 at West Texas A&M University in Canyon. From there, the students have the potential to be chosen to dance at the festival's gala and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.