Dance Theatre Performs Annual Spring Concert

April 18, 2011--The University of Wisconsin-River Falls Dance Theatre will present its annual spring concert April 27-30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Blanche Davis Theater of the Kleinpell Fine Arts building on campus. 

The concert will consist of a unique blend of faculty, guest and student choreography featuring a wide array of styles including swing and contemporary modern dances by 37 dancers.

Guest choreographers and Dance Theatre alumni Ric Suarez and Rana Kuebker have created pieces that range from a humorous playful piece to a retrospective abstract dance for seven women.

Torrion Amie, UWRF assistant director of Student Support Services
and Multicultural Academic Services coordinator, has created a light-hearted swing dance for five.  Mari Kline-Kluck, UWRF lecturer, has choreographed two dances.

This year, Dance Theatre has secured the choreographic talents of two professional guest artists from Minnesota. “Unearthed Me,” choreographed by Bryan Godbout, is a powerful piece which examines human relationships. Godbout is a member of three professional dance companies in the Twin Cities: Zenon Dance Company, Carl Flink's Black Label Movement and Shapiro and Smith Dance Company. Kari Mosel is a member of the Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater and Zenon Dance Company. Her choreographed work “Partition” requires the dancers to express personal experiences and feelings through movement.

Student choreographers Brooke Gusa, a senior pre-professional major from Ellsworth; Kyra Scanlan, a senior elementary education major from Ham Lake, Minn.; Laura Chandler, a senior broad field social studies major from New Brighton, Minn.; and Kristen Beardsley, a senior elementary education major from Los Altos, Calif., have created works that deal with control and manipulate one’s life, transitions and aging and the power of individuals and group. 

The concert will also include traditional African-Cuban and Cuban-Haitian dances set by Karla Zhe, professor of health and human performance. The dances are a result of research and study by Zhe with Ballet Folklorico Cutumba de Santiago - Academy of Cuban Folklore and Dance in Santiago de Cuba.

Tickets are $5/students, seniors and children and $7/adults. Tickets are available from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. April 20-29 at the University Box Office in the Kleinpell Fine Arts building. Tickets will also be available each performance evening beginning at 6 p.m. For more information, contact the Box Office at 715-425-3114.