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By Dan Nonte, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-4314
Photo by Justin C. Tornow
Posted 11-20-09
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Department of Dance presents six works by faculty and students Dec. 4-5 in the final UNCG dance concert of 2009.
The biannual Departmental Concert will feature dances choreographed by adjunct faculty member Madeleine Reber; graduate students Amanda Diorio, Loren Groenendaal and Christine Bowen Stevens; and undergraduates Erin Casanega, Kay Stewart and Lauren Drake. It also will include screenings of “Dear Dad,” an award-winning documentary by graduate student Melissa Pihos.
Performances in the UNCG Dance Theater, 1408 Walker Ave., begin at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, and at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5. Tickets are $12 general admission, $9 for children and seniors, and $6 for students. For tickets and information, please call the UNCG Box Office at (336) 334-4849 or order online at http://boxoffice.uncg.edu.
The following dances are among the works that will be featured in the concert.
• Erin Casanega will perform her solo work “movement explorations in progress: aria & variations,” an American College Dance Festival selection. Set to selected pieces from the Bach/Goldberg variations, the work explores weightedness, the experience of being off-center, spiraling and sudden changes in space/level of the body.
• Amanda Diorio presents “De Passage,” a fusion of jazz and contemporary dance vocabulary set to French and Portuguese music. This lighthearted work is easy on the eyes and ears, and can also be seen in Diorio’s thesis concert, March 19-20.
• Christine Bowen Stevens’ work, “the struggle for ebullience,” was created in her second semester of graduate choreography and is set to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.” The dance is based on ideas of corruption, addiction and desperation.
The film by Melissa Pihos is about watching Alzheimer’s disease take a growing toll on her father, NFL Hall of Famer Pete Pihos. In the film, she reads a letter thanking her dad for all he has given her. She also reads a letter Pete wrote to her when she was 12, shortly after he and her mother divorced. The film also includes footage of Melissa and Pete in the skilled care nursing facility where he lives, excerpts from an interview he gave in the 1980s, and photos of Melissa and Pete.
Finished in April, the film has been shown at Twin Rivers Media Festival in Asheville, where it won the Western N.C. Achievement Award and third place in the Experimental Film Division; the Tacoma Film Festival in Tacoma, Wash.; and Couch Fest Films in Seattle, Wash. It won an Award of Merit from Indie Fest. a virtual festival based in La Jolla, Calif.
The film was the subject of a June article in the arts and entertainment weekly Go Triad.
Directions to the UNCG Dance Theater, as well as information regarding upcoming performances, can be found at www.uncg.edu/dce/calendar.html.