NewsRelease

Dance Gathering Focuses on Culture Feb. 14-15

GREENSBORO — The Department of Dance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro will host “Passport Dance Gathering: A Dance Concert with Multicultural Flavors” on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 14 and 15. The concert will feature acclaimed faculty dancers from throughout North Carolina, who will celebrate their diverse cultural backgrounds - Brazilian, Korean, Chinese, and African American - through dance.

The concerts will begin at 8 p.m. in the UNCG Dance Theater on Walker Avenue.

Passport Dance Gathering will feature the work of five dance artists: Eluza Santos (Brazilian), Younjung Kim (Korean), Shouze Ma (Chinese), and Ava Vinesett and Wesley Williams (African-Americans). The program will include traditional dances as well as modern dances with traditional elements.

Santos, project director and UNCG dance professor, was born in Brazil. Her movement style, musical taste, rhythmic patterns and thematic choices are often inspired by and reflect the culture of her native country. She will perform the premiere of "Broken Seashell," a solo dance with four sections.  Featuring a divided stage and the music of Brazilian and American artists, the piece explores the feelings of being torn and confused as a Brazilian living in American society. Eventually the dancer finds a resolution of those differences.

“Many people can feel like a broken seashell sometimes, like they’re not complete,” said Santos. “People may relate to the dance in different ways.”

Co-founder of the Latina Dance Project, which is currently touring nationally, Santos organized Passport Dance Gathering as a means of focusing on diverse cultures thriving in North Carolina. She invited four talented dancers to join her for the premiere project.

Ma was a founding member of Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first modern dance company in China, where he worked as a company performer, rehearsal director and choreographer.  He is presently on the performing arts faculty at Elon University and is the founder and artistic director of the Visionary Dance Company. His choreography has been critically acclaimed at dance festivals in Paris, Korea, Japan, India, Beijing and New York.

In October 2002, The New York Times reviewed his solo “The Secret of the Fan,” which he will present for the UNCG performance.  The dance, wrote Anna Kisselgoff, had “an intensity so strong that it seemed at a breaking point.”

He has taught internationally at Beijing Dance Academy, the Central University in Korea, the University of Iowa, the University of Minnesota and American College Dance Festival.

Kim studied Korean traditional dance at Seoul National University, and for five years she was a member of Aeju Lee Traditional Dance Group, which performed nationally and internationally. Kim is a doctoral student at the Department of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations at UNCG. She has performed Korean traditional dance to various audiences, including the 2001 North Carolina Dance Festival.

Kim will perform "Seung Mu" (Monk's Dance), which is one of the most famous Korean traditional dances.  The dancer wears a long sleeved jacket crossed with a red sash and peaked white cap, reminiscent of the robes of a Buddhist monk who performs ritual dances in the temple. The movements in the piece come from the daily actions of ordinary lives, and the legacy of the monks serves to build a spiritual element upon this framework.  Kim will be performing a revised and shortened version of the 40-minute original.

A professor of dance at Duke University, Vinesett will bring an African element to the program.  Her interest in dance has taken her to a Congolese dance and drum camp; a cultural tour of Togo, Gambia, Senegal and the Ivory Coast; and several Afro-Caribbean drum and dance workshops, such as the Jamaica School of Dance in Kingston, Jamaica, and Tambocuba in Cuba.

During the Passport Gathering Concert, Vinesett will lead the Duke African Repertory Ensemble in  “Gran Chimin,” a piece from the traditions of Haitian Vodun.

Williams teaches African dance at UNCG. He began his professional dance and acting career with the Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble in 1992. Currently, he directs the Wesley Williams Urban Dance Theatre, which fuses West African and modern dance with theatrics.

His portion of the dance concert will be titled “Beneath the Surface.” The piece will invite the audience to watch a successful individual's life take a sudden turn for the worst. The dancer is confronted with two alter egos. With positive influence from her guardian angel, the dancer finds a path to spiritual insight.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for senior citizens, children and non-UNCG students and $5 for UNCG students with valid ID.  Parking is available in the Walker Avenue parking deck and in the lot on the corner of Aycock Street and Walker Avenue.  For further information and reservations, call 336- 334-4849, weekdays noon-5 p.m.
 
 

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