School of Dance Presents “Evenings of Dance”
Photo by Meagan Helman
Florida State University’s School of Dance presents An Evening of Dance. These performances will highlight the broad scope of choreographic exploration and breadth of performance capabilities of the students and faculty. The diverse program will feature four works spanning a range of dance genres from a contemporary ballet to post-modern explorations of current societal concerns demonstrating students and faculty’s commitment to versatility, research and excellence in the field of dance.
The concert, under the Artistic Direction of Department Chair Joséphine A. Garibaldi, is dedicated to the memory and contributions of longtime School of Dance photographer Jon Nalon. Jon, a motorcycle mechanic by day, wonderfully captured the still moments of a moving art form and provided the School of Dance and Tallahassee community with a large collection of noteworthy and captivating photos of movement for almost 35 years. The lobby will feature some of Jon’s most memorable photos.
This fall, the School of Dance had the privilege to welcome Alumna Millicent Johnnie as a Visiting Guest Artist and Faculty. Johnnie has an extensive commercial and stage career both nationally and internationally. The students have worked with Johnnie on her restaging of Bamboula: Musicians’ Brew. This project was originally commissioned by Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble through the NEFA National Dance Project. The larger work emerged out of the research excavation on the connections between the Zulu Krewe – a blackface minstrel parade in New Orleans – and the Minstrel Carnival in Cape Town, South Africa. FSU School of Dance will premiere an adaptation of this work titled, NOLA all up in my District Six. Johnnie says, “It has been nice to be back in Tallahassee working on this material. I’ve had an opportunity to revisit New Orleans where the research first started and FAMU’s campus where brass music culture is still very much active and alive through the Marching 100.”
Anjali Austin will be presenting a contemporary ballet piece titled Katallasso. She is working with an all female cast and exploring movement on pointe. Austin says, “This piece will continue developing movement sequences from two works I created earlier this year. The process will be collaborative with an interest in utilizing each dancers’ skills and quirks. Investigation of the freedom of movement while dancing on pointe is the undercurrent focus. The piece calls for strong levels of physicality, artistic endurance, and creative curiosity.”
Jawloe Willa Jo Zollar has restaged her work, Walking With ‘Trane, an excerpt from Urban Bush Women’s repertoire. Walking with ‘Trane is a multidisciplinary work inspired by the musical life and spiritual journey of legendary composer and saxophonist John Coltrane, who stood at the forefront of jazz and bebop innovation in racially charged 1960s America. Students were given the opportunity to work with alumni Du’Bois A’Keen and Stephanie Mas, and Samantha Speis members of UBW as they learned and rehearsed Walking with ‘Trane. The dancers will perform the excerpts Quartet and Spiral into Resolution.
New faculty member, Tiffany Rhynard worked with contact improvisations in her work At Close Range. At Close Range creates an intimate space with live feed camera and projection where eight performers explore the tension, vulnerability, and empathy inherent in human interaction. Live accompaniment by FSU School of Music mezzo-soprano, Sahoko Sato Timpone, provides an evocative auditory landscape.
The Florida State University School of Dance will present An Evening of Dance on October 27 at 7:30 pm, and October 28 at 2:00 and 7:30 pm in the Nancy Smith Fichter Dance Theatre in Montgomery Hall, located on the FSU campus. There will be a Pre-Show Talk on both October 27th and October 28th at 6:45pm in room 216. Tickets for An Evening of Dance performances are $18 for adults, $16 for senior citizens, $12 for children and non-FSU students and $10 for FSU students with ID. All seating is general admission. For ticket information, contact the Fine Arts Tickets Office at 850-644-6500 or purchase your tickets online at tickets.fsu.edu.