"SPRING FLIGHT" LAUNCHED BY UW DANCE PROGRAM, APRIL 23-25

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 13, 2009

Contact: Doreen Adamany, (608) 262-2353, dadamany@education.wisc.edu

“SPRING FLIGHT” LAUNCHED BY UW DANCE PROGRAM, APRIL 23-25

It’s flying time, again. And work by San Francisco-based choreographer Scott Wells, known for his highly physical, contact improv-based dance, is set for take off at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Dance Program’s “Spring Flight” concert, April 23-25, at 8:00 p.m. in Lathrop Hall, 1050 University Avenue.

A week prior to the concert, Wells will talk about his work at the Dance Program’s Friday Forum on April 17 at 3:30-4:30pm in the Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space. Immediately following his presentation, he’ll conduct a contact improvisation class for students and community members who practice this art form. Both the talk and class are free and open to the public.

Wells’s new group work, “Call of the Wild”, will be showcased in the concert. Other works by UW-Madison Dance Program artists Kate Corby, Maureen Janson, Li Chiao-Ping, Karen McShane-Hellenbrand, Collette Stewart and Chris Walker are also featured along with lighting design by Claude Heintz.

Wells is renowned for his “hair split timing and hair-raising results,” according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Others say he risks “life and limb” and all the while, entices “audiences to be complicit in the process. He bites the floor. We bite our nails”. His choreography is informed by contact improvisation with a focus on intensely intimate, athletic, physically-based movement.

“Twelve of our dancers will perform Scott’s piece,” says concert coordinator Marlene Skog. “As rehearsals continue, inhibitions fade, and the dancers’ trust in the process and in one another increases. This is particularly important in a genre that stresses partnering, intimacy and inclusion.”

Unlike his dance company in San Francisco, which consists of eight male members this year, Wells is working on campus with a dozen dancers – all women – who auditioned with him in January during his preliminary visit here.

“The women don’t have the upper body strength that men have,” says Wells, “but they pick up the improv moves and phrases more quickly. It’s a positive reflection on the students’ technique training and serves them well in learning this new work.”

When asked what audiences can expect to see, Wells says, “Our animal nature is always lurking just underneath the surface. Despite our best intentions to fit into cultural norms, ‘Call of the Wild’ demonstrates we’re still just critters.” Then he smiles and says, “In addition to the wild, paganistic dancing that ensues, audiences will mostly appreciate and enjoy the well-crafted choreography.”

The following featured works will also be performed.

"Disaster Practice" (2009), a remake of an earlier work by Li Chiao-Ping, ponders how we can best prepare for natural disasters and emergencies. Techniques for navigating and surviving such challenges, including dating and wrestling alligators, are explored.

Collette Stewart premieres a solo entitled “Eye of the Heart”, set to music by Bear McCreary. This sensual and fluid work expresses the energy of the heart poured out through liquid gestures of the hands. As the piece progresses, energy is drawn from the earth and eventually melts back into it.

A new work by Chris Walker continues his explorations of the fusion of traditional and popular Caribbean movement with modern and contemporary dance forms. Featuring performances by Dance Program students, including a solo by Sarah Mitchell, the work is set to music by Bjork and a jazz version of Bob Marley's "no more trouble" performed by Delfeayo Marsalis.

Maureen Janson premieres “Bruises, Water, Flight”, a group work for seven dancers set to a diverse original score created by Los Angeles-based sound designer, Lindsay Jones. Recipient of numerous awards, Jones has composed music and designed sound for Off-Broadway and regional theatre companies as well as for television and film.

Kate Corby's premiere work for nine dancers, "Without and Within," is a meditative exploration of landscape and simplicity. Using a minimal and organic movement vocabulary, the dancers navigate a constantly shifting scenic design, often times narrowly missing one another on their journey to an unknown destination. The work is set to the haunting music of Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson.

In Karen McShane-Hellenbrand’s “Rimbaud in the Park 2009...1969,1929,1889...,” everything is different yet nothing has changed. The work explores how loss and change are often perceived simultaneously as real and unreal, leaving us haunted by the past and plagued with projections about the future. Is living in the moment possible or are we sentenced to simply climbing the ladder, rung by rung, never expecting to get higher?

Tickets are $15 for general public and $10 for students and seniors except on Thursday, April 23, when student tickets are $5.

All 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 one hour before each concert.

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