Department of Dance

The Sam Houston State University Department of Dance’s Spring 2024 semester will culminate with Dance Spectrum in Concert – the bi-annual faculty and guest artist concert that highlights the multi-talented SHSU Dance artists. This evening features a premiere by New York based guest artist Netta Yerushalmy. The concert also includes a collection of dance works by SHSU faculty Francisco Graciano, Travis Lake, Adele Nickel, Andy Noble, Dionne Sparkman Noble and Tyler Orcutt. Come join us for an exhilarating evening of choreography and dance performance!

About the Dances
Opening this semester’s Spectrum concert is a beautiful duet by Francisco Graciano danced to Phillip Glass’s Closing. Originally created in 2011, Ondas is an experimental work that investigates how the concepts of symmetry, rhythm, and repetition manifest themselves in relationships.

Second on the program is tears, etched like so: a group work created for SHSU dance students by Israeli-born dance artist, guest choreographer Netta Yerushalmy. Yerushalmy, who has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship & Princeton Arts Fellowship (among others), commissioned by American Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow, and even choreographed for a Red Hot Chili Peppers music video, came to work with SHSU Dance in mid-January, directly after returning home to the US from spending many months in war-stricken Israel. About the work she states, “What we made together is a particular work - one which was created with this particular group of dancers, in a rich mix with my particular state of mind, heart, and body. As you witness this dance, I invite you to view it as a sculptural landscape, a cascading of images, a space for subconscious meanderings.”

Andy Noble’s haunting 2015 work, Flashburn, includes the magical effect of snow falling in the dark. This work was created with light design collaborator David J Deveau and involves placing light in selected locations on stage to illuminate small details of gesture and physicalized emotion. This dreamlike work, reminiscent of a wartime nightmare, focuses the eye on ghostlike images of tension and loss.

Opening the second half, Dionne Sparkman Noble’s all female cast brings to life Following Aunt Joan. In this dance, originally created in 2007, five women dancing with chairs and dressed in the classic little black dress explore themes of sensuality, empathy, and rivalry. Performed to “Concerto for Piano Trio and Percussion,” a dynamic score by Kenji Bunch, the dance reveals moments of vulnerability and strength, and questions what it means to be a woman of our time.

Adele Nickel presents The Spell, a quintet for three men and two women danced to Tchaikovsky’s Op. 66, commonly known as the Rose Adagio from his 1889 “The Sleeping Beauty.” This work is a further adaption of a pas de deux (a classical duet) created by Nickel and co-choreographer Brian Lawson in 2021 that gestures towards reimagining what contemporary expressions of intimacy and partnership could look like on stage.

Night Crawl, choreographed by Travis Lake, is an exploration of the enigmatic allure of things that go bump in the night. The cast of dancers move with a delicate balance of grace and intrigue, embodying shadows that creep beneath the moonlight. Set to an original composition by Lake, Night Crawl is a landscape where mystery and fascination intertwine, inviting its viewers to lose themselves in the depths of the nocturnal unknown.

Dance Spectrum closes with the premiere of a large group work by Tyler Orcutt. The Potato People have risen, but not without starchy strife in their hearts. Lethal Potatoes artistically examines the themes of coexistence, tribalism as an evolutionary inheritance, and commercialism, through the lens of absurdity.

DETAILS
Dance Spectrum in Concert
May 2-4, 2024 @ 8 PM
James and Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center, Dance Theater
815 17^th Street, Huntsville, TX
Tickets: $12 advance general admission, $15 at the door, student RUSH available week of the show (one free ticket) for current SHSU students with valid SHSU student ID. 
Purchase online at http://www. shsutickets.com or call 936-294-2339

Flashburn by Andy Noble and David J Deveau; Photo by David Rios

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