Days of Dance

As the year’s performance season comes to a close, the School of Dance prepares to showcase the talent of faculty and students in its annual Days of Danceconcert series. Graduate and undergraduate students have been working intensely with their casts over the course of several months to prepare for these performances. Throughout the choreographic process students work with faculty mentors, who offer guidance and advice. The works are then adjudicated for concert selection. Additionally, the concert also features choreography set by School of Dance Faculty

Jawole Zollar brings Shelter(1988) The Belongo Excerpts to the concert program. Originally created in 1988, Shelterhas been a staple in the Urban Bush Women repertory.  Shelter was restaged for the Alvin Ailey Repertory Company in 1993 and most recently 2017. Currently, it is actively touring in their repertory. Regarding Shelter, Zollar says: “I moved to New York City from Tallahassee, FL in 1980.  The numbers of those who were living on the streets, many African American, angered me.  The themes of displacement and dislocation became the central point of investigation for Shelter.”

Iron-horse Ocean by Timothy Glenn was commissioned by Santa Fe College in Gainesville and created in October 2018, immediately following the landfall of Hurricane Michael. In March 2019, restaged and deconstructed within the William Johnston Building for the Paint Around Gala fundraiser. The original Santa Fe College cast has held spring performances at the Santa Fe College spring concerts, the Florida Dance Association Workshop, and American College Dance Association’s Southeast Regional Conference. Iron-horse Ocean was conceived using the Stage Write app (54 pages of blocking synchronized to music). The collective effect of music, original projection and set design, and concept-specific movement suggests a futuristic, intercontinental journey traveling on high-tech, floating tracks.

In conjunction with the Merce Cunningham Trustand the FSU College of Music,the Days of Dance 2019 program will include MinEvent, an uninterrupted sequence of excerpts drawn from dance works by Merce Cunningham. MinEventis set on FSU School of Dance students by former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member Silas Riener with live musical performance spearheaded by composer Stephen Montague. The work will be shown during Days of Dance B at 7:30 p.m. on April 20 and 26 and at a 2:00 p.m. matinee on April 27. MinEventjoins a series of Cunningham Centennial Celebrations at FSU as part of a global celebration of the life and work of American dance artist Merce Cunningham.

Days of Dance runs as two separate full-length programs in order to present the breadth of creative talent stemming from the School of Dance. Program A will be performed on April 19 and 27 at 7:30 pm, and April 20 at 2:00 pm. Program B will be shown on April 20 and 26 at 7:30 pm and April 27 at 2:00pm. All performances will be held in the Nancy Smith Fichter Dance Theatre in Montgomery Hall, located on the FSU campus.