Danceworks 2016 Premieres March 31st and Runs Through April 3rd

The much anticipated Danceworks 2016 premieres at the Alexander Kasser Theatre on March 31st and showcases the limitless dance and choreographic talents of the student and faculty of the Dance program at Montclair State.

The concert, which runs through April 3rd, presents an impressive array of works including the majestic Panorama, choreographed by dance legend Martha Graham in 1935, and also features Colleen Ann by Seattle-based pioneer Pat Graney, a 2013 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient.

Resident choreographers Nancy Lushington, Maxine Steinman, Christian von Howard, and Earl Mosley also contribute to this exciting evening of dance.

Faculty member Earl Mosley presents his work Wild and Free, and as an innovative choreographer, dance educator, and founder/director of the dance company Diversity of Dance, Mr. Mosley felt that with the piece of all-male dancers he intended to “create a sense of brotherhood and spirit that is both calculated and chaotic at the same time. I want the audience to be on the edge of their seats and enjoy multi layers of dynamics and energy exploding on the stage!” explained Mosley.

Static Friction, choreographed by Nancy Lushington was created especially for the dancers at Montclair State and will have its premier at Danceworks 2016. The piece features 14 women dancers on pointe, and explores the physics of dance, meditating on the idea of static friction created between two or more solid objects. Lushington also employed the notion of kinetic friction, and worked to illustrate the science of bodies at rest and forces in equilibrium.

Dance Professor Kathleen Kelley will premiere her new dance film Proteo, in collaboration with the School of Communication and Media’s Filmmaking program and students of Dance. A film with eight different locations and 12 dancers, it features a shared movement vocabulary to create a dark, almost gothic atmosphere. It is the first co-production between Dance and Film programs, where dance students were excited to work closely with Filmmaking instructor Ben Wolf and his students to create this compelling film.

Danceworks 2016 will also feature the premiere of Dance professor Christian von Howard’s That We Are, a piece choreographed to Claude Debussy’s La Cathédrale Engloutie. Bach and Forward, by Dance professor Maxine Steinman, set to the enthralling Baroque music of Johann Sebastian Bach, will also be a part of the evening’s delights, as well as Larry Keigwin’s Exit Like an Animal, a work heralded by Siobhan Burke of The New York Times, calling it “a theatrical flirtation with fashion and night life.”

Join us for a special reception to meet artists, technicians, and members of the Montclair State Dance Repertory Company after the performance on Friday, April 1st.

For more information on Danceworks 2016 visit the Peak Performances webpage where tickets are also on sale.