Purdue Contemporary Dance Company to present Winter Works dance concert

Dancers perform at a previous Winter Works dance concert by the Purdue Contemporary Dance Company. (Purdue University photo) Download image

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Purdue Contemporary Dance Company on Dec. 6-7 will present its Winter Works dance concert.

The dance company will present seven new selected works by dance faculty and student artists. All the dances use original sound created by sound students in the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance.

There will be a 7:30 p.m. performance each evening along with a 2:30 p.m. matinee Dec. 7. The performances will be presented in the Nancy T. Hansen Theatre in the Yue-Kong Pao Hall of Visual and Performing Arts. Tickets are $14 for adults, $11 for students and $7 for children ages 12 and under. Tickets are available at the Pao Box Office, Ticketmaster or by phone at 765-494-3933.

The dances are:

* Carol Cunningham Sigman, professor of dance, choreographed “Into The Presence Of Still Air,” which depicts individuals navigating through a confined world on a search for the chance to be transported to a realm without boundaries.

* “To Linger, To Line, To Still; Imprint” is a new choreographic work from dance lecturer Kathleen Hickey. It explores the boundaries of connection, community and empathy.

* A new work titled “Frequency” by dance lecturer Holly Jaycox will feature nine men and women. It is a high-energy, episodic and poetic look at the human desire to escape or surrender in response to life’s challenges.

* “Branching Waves,” choreographed by dance lecturer Renee Murray, is an abstract work created with 14 students, exploring a slowly evolving landscape of dancers moving with sensitivity to each other and their environment.

* Dance lecturer Mary Beth Van Dyke choreographed “In The Company Of,” exploring how people maintain their individuality in a group and the physicality of shifting group dynamics. An earlier version of this work premiered in May 2019. This iteration includes a new cast, new costumes and a new originally composed sound score.

* Maggie Ogle, a senior majoring in kinesiology with minors in sociology and dance, created a work called “To Whom It May Concern.” Ogle’s piece examines the intersection of relationships through individual and group intentions. The concept was inspired by her interest in the impressions that individuals leave on one another in passing.

* Emma Maggart, a senior majoring in history and minoring in dance, choreographed a new work titled “Unequilibrium.” In it, she investigates unequal balances and relationship through separation. Dancers explore the dramatic shifts between a sense of controlled confinement and complete release. 

Writer: Kelsey Schnieders Lefever, kschnied@purdue.edu

Source: Karla Welchans, kwelchan@purdue.edu