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 UA Dance Students Demonstrate Their Skills. By Margaret Regan OF LATE THE UA student dancers have starred in an ad campaign that declares them the university's "other champion on the hardwood." The champions everybody knows about--the men's basketball team--may have had their glory days truncated by the recent Utah rout, but the dancers are still deep into theirs. In fact, the annual faculty/student show plays this week at Centennial Hall. Dances on the Hardwood will be "a fun concert with some really meaty stuff," declares Jory Hancock, head of the dance division. Student dancers will perform ballet, modern and jazz compositions created by professors, with a few exceptions. Modern dance prof Amy Ernst takes to the stage with guest artist Walter Kennedy in "Fault Boundaries," a Kennedy piece that's won critical acclaim. Ernst also contributes "Bernstein's Reply," her work for 14 dancers that was the UA's entry last summer at the International Theatreschool Festival in Amsterdam.
John Dahlstrand and Tyler Herring built a giant box for "Walls," a contemporary ballet by Hancock and his wife, Melissa Lowe. "The stage feels contained. The dancers are inside the box, which has three walls," Hancock explains. "The piece is about the little traps that we put ourselves in."
Also on the program: "Pinto Mix," a John Wilson piece
set to Handel; and Michael Williams' jazzy "Between the Lines,"
danced to the songs of Harry Connick Jr.
Dances on the Hardwood begins at
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With budgets relatively small for arts champions everywhere,
the UA concerts usually have pretty utilitarian sets. This year
is the exception. Art student Ted Springer created a 12-by-12-foot
sculpture of plywood and stucco for "Concrete Motion,"
a new jazz work by Susan Quinn. The dancers move through an opening
in the artwork, which Hancock says likely will be recycled in
future concerts.
