Ursinus College Dance Company Presents Spring Dance Concert
The Ursinus College Dance Company will perform their Spring Dance Concert in the Lenfest Theater in the Kaleidoscope Performing Arts Center from April 21-23. Featuring works by Ursinus dance program faculty, guests, and student choreographers, UCDC will celebrate being able to perform together with gratitude and hope.
The performances are Thursday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. (coinciding with the annual Celebration of Student Achievement); Friday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m.; and Saturday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m. All audience members are required to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status. The performers will be unmasked, yet tested daily, in an effort to keep everyone safe.
The concert will include original works by faculty choreographers Jeannine Osayande and Dunya Performing Arts Company, Joshua Polk, Dana Powers-Klooster, and Karen Clemente, guest artist Jessica Anthony, and student choreographer Elizabeth Kandler.
The show, produced by Powers-Klooster, celebrates the 10th year of the African Dance Residency led by Jeannine Osayande. This year, the UCDC African Ensemble presents A Love Letter to Myself, featuring Lamban, a West African Mende/Melenke dance tradition that commemorates the Jaili/Griot people (musical/oral historians) from the Mali Empire. Inspired by the Jaili/Griots’s A Love Letter To Myself, the piece explores student dance narratives on self love and praise.
Hip-hop artist Polk’s piece will take you back in time, educating the audience that women are as strong as men.
For now, choreographed by Powers-Klooster, explores the bittersweet nature of leaving community and starting anew, touching on the beautiful support we are capable of giving one another and how these bonds continue to sustain us even when place and time have shifted.
Clemente’s piece, Present Tense/Past Imperfect is a tap dance that celebrates each dancer’s life journey and the dance community that brings us together in this time.
Under Wing, choreographed by Jessica Anthony, is an ensemble piece that considers ideas of flock, flight, and variation within unison.
Student choreographer Kandler’s piece, Bravado, expresses the realities of performing and what it looks like to prepare oneself to go on stage, shining a little light on how it feels to step into a new persona.
Audience members are invited to join the choreographers and dancers for a talk back after the Friday night performance. They will share some background of their creative processes and answer any questions audience members may have about the performance.