Bringing together a diverse group of artists to offer students a performance experience, Utah Tech University’s Dance Program is presenting its annual spring production, Dance in Concert.
Dance in Concert will be performed twice, April 13 and 14, at 7:30 p.m. each day in Main Stage Theater of the Eccles Fine Arts Center on the Utah Tech campus. General admission is $12 and tickets are available at https://rb.gy/l0mh.
“Dance as an art form has the ability to entertain as well as to challenge audience members to consider new perspectives,” Sara Gallo, chair of UT’s Dance Program, said.
Eighteen students majoring and minoring in dance will perform in the concert under the direction of Utah Tech dance faculty Gallo and Jennifer Weber. Dance in Concert will feature works choreographed to provide students with unique experiences in genres, themes and processes.
One work, “Holding Space,” was choreographed by Gallo and recently presented at the American College Dance Festival conference at the University of Utah. Inspired by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the piece explores the effects of loneliness and isolation from nature.
The concert also will feature dances from several guest choreographers, who each set their works in a one-week intense rehearsal process. The pieces explore ideas of beauty, Alzheimer’s disease, comedic pastimes and qi energy.
“Opportunities such as Dance in Concert are vital to an artist’s education because students experience first-hand the professional demands of the field,” Weber said. “Students graduate with the skills and knowledge necessary to blaze their own trails as dance artists in the future.”
Utah Tech University’s Dance Program provides students with a broad understanding of dance as an academic and professional discipline through technical, creative and contextual courses that complement and reinforce one another. The program takes an active learning approach to teaching subjects such as aerial, ballet, modern dance, composition, dance history and social dance. As part of the program, students have the opportunity to perform alongside faculty in three mainstage concerts each year and participate in the American College Dance Association regional conference. Utah Tech offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in dance, a dance emphasis within the university’s Integrated Studies degree as well as a dance minor. Learn more at dance.utahtech.edu.