UNCSA Spring Dance shows range of choreography across disciplines

An exciting cross-pollination of classical ballet and contemporary dance will mark Spring Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) this April. A collaboration of UNCSA schools of Dance and Design & Production, the varied program will include five pieces highlighted by a brand-new reimagining of “The Seven Deadly Sins” by guest choreographer Gina Patterson.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. April 21-23 and 2 p.m. April 24 at the Stevens Center, 405 W. Fourth St. Tickets are $20 regular, $15 for students at 336-721-1945 or online.

Additional works on the program include “Before We Go” by UNCSA alumnus and guest choreographer Grady McLeod Bowman (B.F.A. ’05); “Emote” by guest choreographer Abdur-Rahim Jackson; Tricia Brown’s “Mo,” staged by Abigail Yager; and the “Pas de Trois” from “Swan Lake,” staged by Jennet Zerbe. Yager and Zerbe are UNCSA faculty members.

“Three of the five pieces have large casts, comprised of students from both our Classical Ballet and Contemporary tracks, thanks to the diverse knowledge and choreographic ability of the Spring Dance guest choreographers to create comfortably in myriad disciplines,” said Dean of Dance Endalyn Taylor. “They have expressed excitement about working together and learning from each other throughout this process.

While “Mo” is a contemporary dance and the “Pas de Trois” is from a classical ballet, the other three pieces use both contemporary and classical dancers.

“Our students love working with each other cross-disciplinarily,” said Jared Redick, the assistant dean of Dance. “It helps expand their horizons with their movement choices and lets them look at their own movement vocabulary from a different perspective.”

Patterson’s new take on “The Seven Deadly Sins,” set to an original score by Jordan Brook Hamlin, will be “a world of its own,” the choreographer said, “combining both the contemporary and ballet departments into an aesthetic that combines and challenges both.”

Student designers from the School of Design & Production will produce “an integrated landscape that will communicate a powerful and emotional portrayal of the ‘sins’ as they relate universally and personally, past and present,” Patterson added.

Hailed as a choreographer of “startling originality” by Backstage Magazine, Gina Patterson has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Choo San Goh Award for Choreography for “Life Wind” and the B. Iden Payne Award for “Trail of Tears: Walking the Choctaw Road.” Her work appears in the repertoire of more than 25 companies, including Atlanta Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Austin, Richmond Ballet, Dayton Ballet, BalletMet, and DanceWorks Chicago. She has created more than 100 choreographies, including 13 full-evening productions that include the Emmy-winning “Liquid Roads” for MADCO, a contemporary adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” for CoDa21, and her one-act “Hansel and Gretel” created for the Croatian National Theatre.

Choreographer Bowman said that “Before We Go” is “turning into an exploration and a look back at the lives we lead, and the experiences and people who shape those lives. It’s about the people we leave behind when it’s time to go – either artistically or in relationships. I’m trying to honor the people who have shaped my life – either those who are gone or left behind. And there are also things that we create and we leave behind.”

Bowman continued: “There’s one section where the music is called ‘Sleeping on my Dreams.’ It says to do the things. Don’t wait. Life is short. You want to do the things that you do and create while you are here before it’s too late.”

The music for “Before We Go” is by Jacob Collier, and architectural pieces and special lighting that the dancers can manipulate are coming from Molo Design Limited, known as molo, a design and production studio based in Vancouver, Canada.

Bowman is an international choreographer whose work has spanned Broadway, off-Broadway, television, circus, dance companies, and universities. He most recently received a Helen Hayes nomination for best choreography for “Singin' in the Rain” at the Olney Theatre Center.

Other select choreography credits include "The Cher Show" (Broadway; Finale co-choreographer), Big Apple Circus (Lincoln Center), "World's Got Talent" (Fremantle Media/Hunan TV, China), "The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show" (off-Broadway), "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat" (Drury Lane, Chicago), "My Fair Lady" (Olney Theatre Center, Washington, D.C.), and "A Night with Janis Joplin" (Capital Rep/Barter Theatre/Laguna Playhouse/NC Theatre/Ivoryton Playhouse).

This is his fourth commission for UNCSA.

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