Tallahassee, FL- 08, January, 2017. MFA candidates, Andre Lumpkin, Anna Patsfall, and Cheri Stokes will present an evening of dance entitled Re-Awakening: Freedom, Perspective, Evolution, in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts Degree in Dance, on February 24-25, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. in the Nancy Smith Fichter Dance Theatre in Montgomery Hall, located on FSU’s campus.

Ecdysis presented by Andre Lumpkin, is set to be a full movement experience with seven dancers, an eclectic soundscape and visually stimulating costumes and projections. At its core this work is a metaphor and message. Ecdysis, the process by which a snake sheds its skin, is used as an embodied metaphor of identity, fear, hope and freedom. The message: the person must break free from whom they believe they are to know all they can be.

Anna Patsfall’s Waking Beauty is a reimagining of the traditional ballet Sleeping Beauty. In this three-part work Patsfall unpacks and reimagines the traditional ballet’s themes and characters to present her own unique point of view. Alongside her own choreography, Patsfall performs a solo choreographed by Ilana Goldman and inspired by the evil fairy, Carabosse, who seeks revenge for not being invited to Princess Aurora's christening. Waking Beauty represents a reflection on Patsfall’s career as a professional ballet dancer and her shifting perspectives about the role of traditional ballet in contemporary culture.

In the work Da Block, presented by Cheri Stokes, the audience will be taken on a journey experiencing Stokes’ personal history growing up in Brooklyn, NY during the emergence of 1980’s and 1990’s Hip-Hop culture. Through projections, texts, high energy solo and ensemble work, the audience will see facets of Hip-Hop, Dancehall, and cultural aspects of African-American family history; which have influenced the essence of Stokes’ movement style and choreographic voice.