The Department of Theatre and Dance presents: Master Choreographers – Faculty & Guest Artists
February 8-10, Empie Theatre, Baker Center for the Arts, Muhlenberg College Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Information & Tickets 484-664-3333 or www.muhlenberg.edu/ticketsThursday, January 18, 2007 01:59 PM
Award winning artist-faculty choreograph in a world class concert event performed by a company of Muhlenberg dancers. Choreographers include Charlotte Boye-Christensen of Ririe-Woodbury Dance, Charles O. Anderson of Dance Theatre X, Kathleen Bibalo, Karen Dearborn, Samuel Reyes, Shelley Oliver with live performance by the David Leonhardt Trio, and Keith A. Thompson. Under the Artistic Direction of Karen Dearborn, Director of the Dance Program at Muhlenberg, the Master Choreographers Concert continues the legacy of education and promotion of new and innovative dance pieces set on Muhlenberg College dancers. Their choreography has been nationally recognized and featured in the American College Dance Festival for the last four consecutive years.
Charlotte Boye-Christensen, a native of Denmark, received her formal training at London Contemporary Dance School and at the Laban Centre in London and completed her M.F.A. at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. After working internationally as a freelance choreographer, teacher and dancer for the more than a decade, she was invited in 2002 to become Associate Artistic Director of the acclaimed dance company founded by Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. Charlotte and Ririe-Woodbury Dance are Baker Artists-in-Residence for the 2006-07 academic year at Muhlenberg College. In Passing, her piece set to music by Bach, was originally created with Verb Ballets in Cleveland in 2004. The piece follows closely the intricate, playful, elegant structure of Bach’s music and attempts to redraw physically what he so brilliantly achieved aurally.
As the Baker Artist this year, Boye-Christensen has taught academic dance classes, conducted a 5-day dance intensive on campus, and restaged one of her original dances for the Master Choreographers Concert (February 8-10, 2007). She will return to campus in February with other members of Ririe Woodbury Dance Company to conduct a week-long company residency and to present Ririe-Woodbury’s work in concert (February 16, 2007). Both concerts will be staged in the Empie Theatre of the Baker Center for the Arts and are open to the campus and the community. Dedicated to contemporary, multi-media dance, Ririe-Woodbury has toured original and innovative dance around the world to great acclaim. Their mission also includes preparing dancers as performers, teachers and choreographers; providing dance education in communities and schools; and commissioning new choreographers of exceptional talent.
Guest artist, Keith A. Thompson, choreographer, teacher, dancer, has worked with Dan Wagoner & Dancers, Jacob’s Pillow Men Dancers, and Creach/Koester Company, danced internationally for the Trisha Brown Company from 1992-2001, served as Trisha’s Rehearsal Assistant from 1998-2001 and continues to represent TBC in the sharing of Technique and Repertory both at the Trisha Brown Studio in New York City as well as festivals, schools, and workshops around the world. He continues to perform as a dancer for Creach/Company, currently tours with the Bebe Miller Company, and is immersing himself in the creation of his own work with his company ‘danceTactics performance group by Keith A. Thompson’. Keith completed his MFA Research Fellowship in Dance from Bennington College in 2003 and currently serves on the MFA faculty at Temple University in Philadelphia. His piece in the Master Choreographers Concert, Raw Images, “is an exploration of the physical images colliding with musical imagery…the landscapes that the imagination can create between relationships, movement, and music.”
This year the Muhlenberg College dance faculty choreographing for this concert include Charles O. Anderson, Kathleen Bibalo, Karen Dearborn, Samuel Reyes and Shelley Oliver. Constance Case of the Muhlenberg Faculty is designing the unique original costumes for each of the dances created by faculty and guest choreographers. Guest artist Susan Hamburger is designing the stage lighting.
Charles O. Anderson, a native of Richmond, Virginia, continues to enjoy a successful career as choreographer, performer and artistic director of his Philadelphia-based dance company, dance theatre X. Over the past ten years, his choreography has been presented through such venues as Mulberry Street Theatre, Danspace at St. Mark's Church, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Danceboom! at the Wilma Theatre, WAX Performance Space and Here Arts Center among others. He has performed in the companies of such noted choreographers as Ronald K. Brown, Sean Curran, Mark Dendy, Talley Beatty and Miguel Guttierez among others. Charles' choreography has been funded by Dance Advance, The Community Education Center's New Edge Residency, The Susan Hess Choreographer's Project and The Puffin Foundation.
Kathleen Bibalo has performed professionally in many different genres of dance. For four years she worked with New York based company Dance Council Movement Theatre (DCMT) with which she performed across the country. She has also performed with the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, American Dance Machine, and Swing Dance America. As well as Muhlenberg, she is currently also on faculty at Cedar Crest College and is Director of the Muhlenberg College Community Dance Center. Her piece in this concert, Collapsing Points, is set to music by Paganini and stems from the Forsythe Improvisation Principles of movement.
Karen Dearborn has choreographed over 70 works in concert, theatre, and musical theatre including national tours of the Tony Award-winning National Theatre of the Deaf and several Equity theatres. Recently she has provided choreography for the MTA productions of Cabaret, Urinetown, Wonderful Town, West Side Story, Brigadoon, Oklahoma!, and SMT productions of Guys and Dolls, Man of La Mancha, Boys from Syracuse, Oliver! and Annie Get Your Gun. She is currently Professor and Director of the Dance Program at Muhlenberg College.
Shelley Oliver has toured throughout Europe, China, the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States. She has appeared internationally with some of the legends of the tap world, including Savion Glover, Jimmy Slide, Buster Brown, Steve Condos, and Chuck Green. A founding member and co-artistic director of Manhattan Tap, she has performed with many great jazz musicians, including Slide Hampton, David “Fathead” Newman, Robin Eubanks, and Kenny Washington. Her professional company, The Shelley Oliver Tap Dancers, tours with the David Leonhardt Jazz Trio in concert halls and festivals around the country. For this year’s faculty concert, Shelly has created an upbeat dance to reflect the nuances of theswinging Duke Ellington standard, C Jam Blue. Inspired by the Oscar Peterson version, Leonhardt has created a musical arrangement especially for the Muhlenberg Dancers.
Samuel Reyes has trained with Ronen Koresh, Rennie Harris, and Kip Martin and has performed with the Philadelphia company, dance theater X directed by Charles O. Anderson. Has choreographed for nightclubs such as Shampoo, Life, Chrome and the 2000 and 2004 Blue Ball Event, choreographed the opening of the Philadelphia Gay Pride Event at the Kimmel Center in May 2001, and worked with the Prince Music Theatre, the Cat Scratch Theater Company, Luna Theater and Jeffrey Marsh La Cabaret. He has commissioned dances for Zen One Dance Collective and the 2004 New Jersey Garden State Arts Festival and is currently choreographer for Darimar Productions.
CONSTANCE CASE (Costume Designer) has designed numerous faculty dance concerts and many of the Muhlenberg theatre productions, including Cabaret, The Beggar’s Opera, Pentecost, Brigadoon, Dido and Aeneas and The Country Wife. She has previously designed dance costumes for Shelley Oliver, Karen Dearborn, Charles O. Anderson, Clare Byrne, Tiffany Mills and many other talented choreographers. She earned her M.F.A. from Wayne State University in Detroit, where she worked for the Harmonie Park Playhouse, The Hillberry Theatre, the Museum of African American History and Michigan Opera Theatre.
BOX OFFICE INFORMATION
Tickets are $15 Adult and Senior, $8 Youth, and $5 Campus. Call 484-664-3333, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for ticket reservations. Tickets must be purchased at time of reservation. You may purchase tickets online by visiting www.muhlenberg.edu/tickets. For more information about the dance program at Muhlenberg College, visit: www.muhlenberg.edu/depts/theatre.
