Purdue Contemporary Dance Company to present Winter Works concert

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Purdue Contemporary Dance Company, housed in the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Design, Art and Performance, will present its annual Winter Works dance concert Dec. 10 and 11. 

The dance company will present six newly selected works by dance faculty and student artists. In addition to the dances’ movements created in the dance studio this fall, original sound scores were created for each dance by choreographers and Rueff School sound-design students. Rueff School light-design students also worked with choreographers to craft special light designs.

The performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10 and 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 11 in the Nancy T. Hansen Theatre in Pao Hall, 552 W. Wood St. Due to continued COVID-19 precautions, Protect Purdue guidelines must be followed. Masks are required for all audience members, as well as the performers, and the theatre will be seated at 50% capacity.

A livestream option also will be available for the Dec. 10 performance. Those who wish to view the Dec. 10 performance virtually must register by 3 p.m. that day.

Tickets are $16 for adults, $12 for students and $8 for children 12 years old or younger. Tickets are available for purchase at the Purdue box office, at 765-494-3933.

The performances are as follows:

* Choreographed by dance faculty member Carol Cunningham-Sigman, “W-A-T-C-H-E-D” explores the idea of intrusive surveillance. The dance work portrays a group of women residing in an eerie, dystopic world being observed by an unknown entity. The group of individuals respond to each other and their surroundings with feelings of fear, secrecy, curiosity and anger.

* Faculty choreographer Kathleen Hickey considered power dynamics within relationships, and the circular patterns displayed by hunting turkey vultures, while creating her new work “Surviving the Storm.” This choreography features seven dancers whose relationships unfold throughout the work, while performing movement that hangs in balance, shifts in dynamics, contains gestures both large and small, and evokes empathy.

* In “After The End,” a group of women manage together in the aftermath of a devastating event. At times a struggle, at times a party, this new work created by faculty member Holly Jaycox takes an occasionally ironic approach to what it might mean to continue something, after it is over.

* Choreographed by dance faculty member Renee Murray, “Expanding Moments,” uses movement as a vehicle to layer texture, qualities and emotions into the dance. The work is performed by eight students who embody a wide array of textures and qualities such as wavy, broken, jagged and silky.

* In the new work “Entering Distant Waters,” faculty choreographer Sally Wallace explores new ideas while revisiting a dance she created in 1997. In the older work, “Tides and Solitude,” six dancers rely on seven-foot poles to navigate their movement on the ground and in the air. These movements are inspired by tides and winds. In this new version, still using wooden poles, Wallace considers current times in our world where there is great change, and it seems we are moving into an unknown future more than ever before. 

* Madison Hinton, A Purdue Division of Dance alumna, steps in as a guest choreographer in her return to the Hansen stage. Hinton created an episodic work depicting a group of individuals experiencing moments in which they are faced with the ironies of life and responding in an unusual but relatable fashion.

Contact Sally Wallace at 765-494-5993 or dapdance@groups.purdue.edu for more information.

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Writer, Media contact: Bella Vina, ivina@purdue.edu