The UNC Charlotte Department of Dance will present two back-to-back evenings of diverse performances, showcasing faculty choreography on Friday, Jan. 23, and hosting the North Carolina Dance Festival (NCDF) on Saturday, Jan. 24. Both productions will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Robinson Hall for the Performing Arts, Belk Theater.
The Faculty Dance Concert will feature guest and faculty dancers in works by professors Gretchen Alterowitz, E.E. Balcos and Kim Jones. Charlotte Ballet principals Anna Gerberich and Pete Leo Walker will perform Alterowitz’s contemporary ballet “Holding Ground,” choreographed in fall 2012 for the Atlanta Ballet’s Wabi Sabi series. Whitney Hunter and Pauline Sylviane Legras of the Martha Graham Dance Company and Daniel Fetecua Soto of the José Limón Company will join Kim Jones in “Shedding,” performed to Handel’s aria “Cara sposa,” performed live by countertenor Reginald Mobley. Soto will dance a 1957 solo by José Limón “Mazurkas” set to music by Chopin.
The Jan. 23 program also includes a contact improvisation piece by Balcos and guest artist Alicia Grayson, a work by Greensboro-based choreographer and NCDF director Jan Van Dyke and two works by the AGA Collaborative (Alterowitz, Alison Bory and Amanda Hamp).
Each year since 1991, the North Carolina Dance Festival has toured across the state, highlighting the work of North Carolina’s professional choreographers. The 2014-15 tour ends in Charlotte on Jan. 24 and features work by former Pilobolus dancer Gaspard Louis, Elon University professor Sara Ruth Tourek, UNC School of the Arts professor and former North Carolina Dance Theatre member Diego Carrasco Schoch, Durham-based choreographer Leah Wilks and Fayetteville-based choreographer Kristen Jeppsen Groves. The UNC Charlotte performance will include a work by Davidson College professor Alison Bory and a repeat performance of Jones’ “Shedding.”
Tickets to each event are $14 for general admission, $9 for seniors and $6 for students. A special discount is available for those who attend both programs: purchase tickets to the Friday night Faculty Concert and receive the NCDF tickets at half-price (discount offer is available by phone at 704-687-1849 and in person only). Visit arts.uncc.edu for details.