NOVEMBER DANCE
DANCE AT ILLINOIS
Thursday-Saturday, November 6-8, 2014, at 7:30pm
Colwell Playhouse
PROGRAM
NOVEMBER DANCE
DANCE AT ILLINOIS
Thursday-Saturday, November 6-8, 2014, at 7:30pm
Colwell Playhouse
Zeitgeist
Improvisation facilitated by Kirstie Simson and Susan Becker
7pm in the Lobby
Tom
Philip Johnston
SHADE! (The Secret Dance of Trees)
C. Kemal Nance
20-minute intermission
THE TRACE
In mathematics, the trace is the sum of the
elements in the principal diagonal of a square
matrix.
Tonight you will see a concert of new dance
works . . . a pie from scratch, as my mother used
to say. Even though one dance—SHADE!—has
been reconstructed, it has been through an
alteration process that allows us to claim it as
new. In all these dances, the new work is traced
from something of the past.
In the process of making something out of
nothing, choreographers investigate ideas
that creep out of our historical and cultural
lives. A film, a tree, a poem, a concept, a
movement may launch the inquiry, but then the
investigation takes on a life of its own. Together
the choreographer and dancers explore, gather,
make, remake, and discard in response to initial
WELCOME
motivations. Movement, sound, costumes, and
lighting are generated, altered, and realtered.
Determining what is kept and what is discarded is
the rigorous work of the artists. Tonight you will
see what has literally made it to the stage. Some
choreographers choose to explicitly reveal the
initial or motivating idea—others do not. But surely
there will be traces of a film, a tree, a poem, a
concept, or a movement in the dancer’s body and
memory . . . something lingers from the process of
making that creates layers of textures in the dance.
Listen to the words of the choreographers in the
program notes, but then allow the trace to be
experienced as you view the dance.
—Jan Erkert, Dance at Illinois Head
Joys and Perplexities
Rebecca Nettl-Fiol
Journey
Fredrick Earl Mosley
This production is supported, in part, by donations to The Producers Group. Dance at Illinois gratefully acknowledges these gifts, which
assist performing arts students in their professional training.
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Zeitgeist
Collaborators
Tom
Kirstie Simson
Susan Becker
Sara Camp
Shuhan Chen
Madeleine Defreitas
Yasmin Gonzalez
Clare Hansen
Chuqiao Huang
Alex Hutton
Geng Liu
Yang Liu
Jennifer Lu
Kara Murphy
Valerie Sharp
Diana Shepherd
Yueyue Sun
Thomas Welsh-Huggins
Laura Wennstrom
Yuqi Yao
Jing Yu
Yingqi Zhao
NOTES
Zeitgeist is the product of a class taught in collaboration between improvisation dance artist Kirstie
Simson and clothing designer Susan Becker with 14 students representing majors from across campus
including five dance students.
Choreography
Philip Johnston
Music
The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives
Lighting Designer
Lauren Tyler
Sound Designer
Tyler Knowles
Dancers
Alex Gossen
Justin Yeung
NOTES
While researching in Northern Ireland last summer for a larger World War I project, based on the Battle
of the Somme in July 1916, I discovered the unpublished letters of Tom McKinney (1893-1916) at his
family home, Sentry Hill in Glengormley. These letters were written over a period of two years, from
Tom’s departure from Ireland with the Irish Fusiliers in 1914 to trench warfare in northern France and
Tom’s death on July 19, 1916. My duet Tom is inspired by the relationship between Tom and his friend F.
W. Ekin and their support for each other during the horror of the trenches.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It has been a great pleasure to work with Alex and Justin in the creation of Tom. They inspired me
during every rehearsal to delve deeper into the duet and in their trust for each other by discovering
partnership through physical challenges.
Pause
The students were asked to explore the concept of zeitgeist (the spirit of the times in which we live), and
their responses shaped a series of investigations through the mediums of fabric and movement. Each
student, regardless of background, was responsible for creating with both fabric and movement. The
final result is an invitation to the audience to share in their process.
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SHADE! (The Secret Dance of Trees)
Joys and Perplexities
Choreography
C. Kemal Nance
Choreography
Rebecca Nettl-Fiol
Music
Everybody Loves the Sunshine by Roy Ayers
The Feel the Same by Groove Armada featuring
Angie Stone
Music
Suite for Violoncello and Piano and Aria from Suite
for Violoncello and Harp by Lou Harrison
Lighting Designer
Lauren Tyler
Sound Designer
Tyler Knowles
Musicians
Sarah Chang, piano
Jordan Gunn, cello
Claire Happel, harp
Dancers
Brendan P. Behan
Siobahn Bryant
Laina Reese Carney
Alyssa Gordon
Bianca Hairston
Skylar Males
Momar Ndiaye
Ricky Perry
Angela Pittman
Jessica Pretty
Elisandra Rosario
James Washington
Lighting Designer
Lauren Tyler
Sound Designer
Tyler Knowles
Dancers
Laina Reese Carney
Abi Elliott
Alyssa Gordon
Max Gorgol
Claire Happel
Haley Jensen
Oksana Kuzma
Katelynn Williams
NOTES
SHADE! (The Secret Dance of Trees) is inspired by When Trees Dance . . . , a work I mounted on
Swarthmore College’s African Repertory students in 2001. The original choreography featured a mythical
narrative in which trees danced a story of communal joy. While Roy Ayers’ Everybody Loves the Sunshine
still serves as a muse for the work, this latest version featuring U of I students includes a scenario in
which dancing trees contend with more atmospheric elements than “bees and thangs and flowers.”
NOTES
The title Joys and Perplexities refers to a book of poetry written by the composer Lou Harrison. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to Laura Chiaramonte and Claire Happel for working with me this summer to generate
and gather material for this work.
Pause
SHADE (The Secret Dance of Trees) uses Umfundalai, neotraditional West African, and house movement
vocabularies to create another imagined dance life for trees, celebrating what Janheinz Jahn refers
to as bintu, or the life force that exists among plants. In so doing, SHADE offers a metaphor for the
idiosyncrasies and histrionics of African American, queer, and African American queer cultures.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I extend a special dobale to Stafford C. Berry Jr., Walter Stallworth, Abigail Zbikowski, and all my
dancers for their energy and generosity of spirit. Among them, I especially thank Siobahn Bryant, Laina
Reese Carney, and Angela Pittman for their involvement in the production elements of the work.
SHADE (The Secret Dance of Trees) is warmly dedicated to Monica Bailey Washington.
20-minute intermission
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Journey
PROFILES
Choreography
Fredrick Earl Mosley
Rehearsal Director
Jessica Pretty
Music
March performed by ETHEL
Air on a G String by J. S. Bach
1919 by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Lighting Designer
Lauren Tyler
Sound Designer
Tyler Knowles
Dancers
Aryanna Aronson
Tuli Bera
Donna Carnow
Max Gorgol
Alex Gossen
Carla Gruby
Bianca Hairston
Grant Hill
Alex Hutton
Kamilla Gray Kinard
Jennifer Lu
Brian Lynch
Gina Matsie
Reika McNish
Allison Pauley
Ricky Perry
Jessica Pretty
Diana Shepherd
Randi Townsend
Thomas Welsh-Huggins
Katherine Williams
Justin Yeung
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Philip Johnston (Choreographer) trained as a
dancer with Helen Lewis in Belfast. He received a
BA from the University of Ulster and is a graduate
of the London School of Contemporary Dance.
He earned MFA and PhD degrees from the U of
I. Philip performed and choreographed in Europe
for 15 years. He was the artistic director for the
Norwegian Modern Dance Company in Oslo. He
has received numerous choreographic and dance
fellowships from the Arts Council of Northern
Ireland, the British Council, the Norwegian Fund
for Performing Artists, the Norwegian Culture
Council, the London School of Contemporary
Dance, and the Skinners Guild of London. The
Charles and Harriet Luckman Undergraduate
Distinguished Teaching Award at the U of I was
awarded to Philip. Philip’s book The Lost Tribe in
the Mirror: Four Playwrights of Northern Ireland
was published by Lagan Press (2009), and the
biography Nina Fonaroff: Life and Art in Dance is
forthcoming from Celtic Cat Publishing.
Fredrick Earl Mosley (Choreographer), born in
Raleigh, North Carolina, is the founder and artistic
director of the not-for-profit Diversity of Dance
Inc. (founded in 1998) and its programs such as
Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts (EMIA) and
Hearts of Men (HOM). EMIA is celebrating its 10thseason anniversary as one of the nation’s leading
new summer intensives, which serves more than
175 students annually and was recognized as a
serious summer program by Dance Magazine. In
2014, HOM launched its very successful inaugural
season as a summer intensive serving more than
50 male dancers of all ages in an intergenerational
community of brotherhood through dance. He
is currently on the faculty of Montclair State
University, the Manhattan Movement and Arts
Center, the Ailey School and the Joffrey Ballet
School. Learn more at EMIAdance.org.
C. Kemal Nance (Choreographer), a native of
Chester, Pennsylvania, holds a BA in sociology/
anthropology with a concentration in black studies
from Swarthmore College, where he taught dance
for 20 years. He holds MEd and PhD degrees in
dance from Temple University, where he won the
Katherine Dunham Award for Creative Dance
Research in 2013. Nance is an Umfundalai master
teacher and leads the Organization of Umfundalai
Teachers, a consortium of artists who convene
African dance pedagogy trainings. While in
Philadelphia, Nance danced with Kariamu and
Company: Traditions and performed regularly
with Chuck Davis’ African American Dance
Ensemble in Durham, North Carolina. Currently,
Nance co-directs a dance initiative dedicated to
the production of works about African American
maleness, the Berry and Nance Dance Project
(www.BNDPDance.net).
Rebecca Nettl-Fiol (Choreographer), professor
of dance, is a choreographer, teacher, author, and
Alexander Technique teacher. She also is currently
the Dance at Illinois liaison to Lyric Theatre @
Illinois. Her choreography is presented annually
at Krannert Center, and she has created work for
more than 35 concerts for Dance at Illinois and
numerous opera and musical theatre productions,
including most recently Orpheus in the Underworld
and My Fair Lady. Her work has been selected for
the American Dance Guild Performance Festival
and FranceOff! (both in New York City), the
Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival,
and the Frente de Danza Independienta Sala
de Artes Escénicas de Jesús in Quito, Ecuador.
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Nettl-Fiol is a frequent presenter at conferences,
including a recent keynote address at the Dance
and Somatic Practices Conference in Coventry,
England. Nettl-Fiol is the co-author of Dance and
the Alexander Technique: Exploring the Missing
Link and The Body Eclectic: Evolving Practices in
Dance Training.
Kirstie Simson (Dance Improvisation Artist) has
been a continuous explosion in the contemporary
dance scene, bringing audiences into contact
with the vitality of pure creation in moment after
moment of virtuoso improvisation. Called “a
force of nature” by The New York Times, she
is an award-winning dancer and teacher who
has “immeasurably enriched and expanded
the boundaries of New Dance,” according to
Time Out magazine (London): “Simson’s eternal
subject is freedom, as she dares to go beyond
the boundaries of form and structure to create
movement out of the rhythm of life itself.” Kirstie
is renowned today as an excellent teacher, a
captivating performer, and a leading light in the
field of dance improvisation. A documentary
film directed by Katrina McPherson was recently
completed about her work. Kirstie currently
holds a faculty position with Dance at Illinois and
continues to teach and perform all over the world.
Susan Becker (Clothing Designer) works as a
designer, artist, and educator in the field of
fashion and dress. For the past 20 years, she
has designed for traditional and experimental
settings, from the fashion industry to
collaborations on stage, film, and site-specific
projects. Recent collaborators include artist Deke
Weaver (WOLF), choreographer Tere O’Connor
(Sister), and choreographer Jennifer Monson
(Live Dancing Archive). In addition to her design
work, Becker has also taught courses on fashion
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and dress for the Rhode Island School of Design
and is currently a lecturer at the U of I. Her solo
work centers around explorations of the social
psychology of dress and culture.
Linda Lehovec (Concert Director) is an associate
professor with Dance at Illinois. Linda began her
training in Massachusetts with Madeline Cantarella
Culpo. She holds a BFA degree from the Juilliard
School and an MFA degree from the U of I. Linda
has had the pleasure of dancing in the works of
many contemporary choreographers, including Joe
Goode, Ralph Lemon, Stephen Koester, Bill Young,
Tere O’Connor, Sara Hook, and David Parker.
Her work has been performed internationally in
Canada, Korea, and Chile and nationally in San
Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta,
Oklahoma, Florida, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Linda has been awarded two fellowships in
choreography from the Illinois Arts Council and
recently received a College of Fine and Applied
Arts Creative Research Award and a University
Research Grant to collaborate with Chilean
choreographer Francisca Silva-Zautzik.
Kaitlyn Day (Costume Coordinator) is a native of
Queens, New York. As a third-year MFA candidate
in the Costume Design Program at the U of I,
she has designed for The Tempest for Illinois
Theatre and Gone for February Dance: Hybridity
and is currently designing ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore
for Illinois Theatre. Previously, she has assisted
the costume designer for A Dream Play, Spring
Awakening, Much Ado About Nothing, and The
Skin of Our Teeth.
Roy Howington (Technical Director) is an Atlanta
native. This is his first year as an MFA candidate
in the Scenic Technology Program at the U of
I. Previously, he was a technical director and
fabricator working in Atlanta, Boston, and
New York for over a decade. Teaching for the
past three years as the technical director for
undergraduate drama at Tisch School of the Arts
at NYU opened his eyes to the joy of teaching
theatre and motivated him to pursue his MFA.
His New York City colleagues and collaborators
include PDNYC’s Sleep No More, Paper
Mâché Monkey, George Tsypin Opera Factory,
Juniper Street Productions, Jerard Studio, the
Atlantic Theater Company, and the Chautauqua
Theater Company. His Atlanta colleagues and
collaborators include the Alliance Theatre,
Georgia Shakespeare, the Center for Puppetry
Arts, Théâtre du Rêve, Synchronicity, Theatrical
Outfit, and the Object Group.
assistant production coordinator for ELLNORA
| The Guitar Festival and as the resident stage
manager for Karole Armitage’s Fables on Global
Warming. Joshua holds a Bachelor of Science
degree in theatre design and production from
Illinois State University and an Associate of Fine
Arts degree in music education from Parkland
College.
Lauren Tyler (Lighting Designer) is a graduate
student in the Lighting Design Program at the U
of I. She has a BFA from Baylor University. Lauren
has worked as the technical director of the Vive
Les Arts Theatre in Killeen, Texas, and has worked
with organizations such as Taylor Studios, the San
Antonio Opera, and Casa Mañana Theatre.
Tyler Knowles (Sound Designer) is a senior
studying sound design and technology. This is his
first sound design for a production at Krannert
Center. He was previously an assistant sound
designer on Much Ado About Nothing and
November Dance: Big Tiny Little Dance. Tyler has
also worked on productions at the Armory Free
Theatre and with Illini Student Musicals.
Julie Rundell (Properties Master) has been
the assistant properties director at Krannert
Center since 1990. Her work has been seen at
theatres in Montana, North Carolina, Michigan,
Massachusetts, and Wisconsin, and, occasionally,
her work can be seen in Chicago. She has a BFA
from the North Carolina School of the Arts.
Joshua D. Stewart (Production Stage
Manager) is a third-year MFA candidate in
stage management. Most recently, Joshua
served as the stage manager for Orpheus in the
Underworld, the inaugural production of Lyric
Theatre @ Illinois. Joshua has also served as an
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PRODUCTION STAFF
Concert Director
Linda Lehovec
Production Stage Manager
Joshua D. Stewart
Technical Director
Roy Howington
Costume Coordinator
Kaitlyn Day
Assistant Stage Manager
Rick Mireles
Assistant Lighting Designer
Eric Norbury
Properties Master
Julie Rundell
Master Electrician
Erin Pleake
Dance Assistant Stage Managers
Rebecca Dankovich
Luis Vazquez
Light Board Operator
Mary Vo
Sound Board Operator
Victoria Ronin
Video Crew
Arielle Dykstra
Charles Gowin
Running Crew
Phoebe Ballard
Elizabeth Winegardner
Katrina Zale
Fly Rail Operator
Jessica Watson
Costume Running Crew
Allison Pauley
Sarah Stearn
Skylee Trimble
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