STIMULUS PACKAGE: AN EVENING OF DANCE

Here's a "new works" plan that won't cost taxpayers billions… Titled "Stimulus Package: An Evening of Dance", emerging choreographers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Dance Program have created their own new works to share with the public. No entitlements attached.

This "Stimulus Package" is totally transparent. Audiences can see for themselves on Thursday-Saturday, February 26-28, at 8:00 p.m. in the Margaret H'Doubler Performance Space in Lathrop Hall, 1050 University Avenue. Guidelines for accountability are simple: buy a ticket and enjoy the performance.

To stimulate spending, admission is only $10/students & seniors and $15/general public except on Thursday when student tickets are a mere $5.  Tickets may be purchased in advance: in person at the Wisconsin Union Theater Box Office, 800 Langdon Street; by phone at 262-2201; online at www.uniontheater.wisc.edu or at the door at Lathrop Hall beginning one hour before each performance.

The student-initiated "Stimulus Package" targets a variety of group works, duets, solos and a trio. Billed as "Concrete", the largest work fuses modern dance with hip hop theater. It was co-created by seven choreographers and two First Wave Ensemble spoken word artists. Dancers and First Wave students wowed audiences initially at their collaborative performance at the annual Bascom Hill Society dinner last fall at Monona Terrace.

"By working together," says dance and elementary education major Melissa Erickson, "we've come to really appreciate the amazing subtleties of the poetry and the poignant social and economic messages they express. Our collaboration has also led us to discover new ways of generating movement."

 "Concete", in addition to several other works, have been selected to represent the UW-Madison at this year's American College Dance Festival Association's (ACDFA) North-Central Regional Conference at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in March.

They include:

"Liquidate", a dance theater work for six dancers choreographed by
assistant professor Kate Corby. Set against a backdrop of
contemporary electronic music, the work explores deconstruction
and disintegration through contrasting movements and challenges
traditional constructs of form through experimentation.

"Equator", a quartet choreographed by junior Brittany Wittmann,
explores the push and pull of interpersonal relationships such as
inclusion versus exclusion and interaction versus individuality.
"The piece as a whole reminds me of pinballs in an arcade game…the
dancers are constantly bouncing through space while at the same
time trying to cling to safety and security," says Wittmann.

"seedling", a colorful, playful solo choreographed by senior
Mychelin McConley, captures all the ups and downs along with the
curiosity and spontaneity of being a little girl…in a fruit orchard.

All the choreographers selected for this year's concert are upperclassmen from the Midwest. They include: Laura Bohne, junior (Menasha, Wis.), Liza Brink, senior (Grand Rapids, Mich.), Melissa Erickson, junior (Lindenhurst, Ill.), Amy Kovalaske, senior (Theresa, Wis.), Mychelyn McConley, senior (Stoughton, Wis.), Sarah Mitchell, sophomore (Arlington Heights, Ill.), Carlyn Pitterle, junior (Brookfield, Wis.), Meghan Rohde, senior (Middleton, Wis.), Ashley Selmer, senior (Minneapolis, Minn.), Olivia Templin, senior (Wauwatosa, Wis.), Kati Theisen, senior (West Bend, Wis.), Kesha Sierra Wilkinson, junior (Milwaukee, Wis.), and Brittany Wittmann, junior (Menomonee Falls, Wis.).

"These award-winning students are high achievers in the studio and in the classroom," says Kate Corby, Dance Program assistant professor and concert coordinator. "In addition to receiving numerous academic scholarships and summer awards – more than 40 between them – many are double majors and are often on the Dean's List."

For more information on this story, please contact Doreen Adamany, (608) 262-2353 .