West Virginia Universitys Dance Concert 2005, featuring the Orchesis Dance Ensemble, will be held in the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre at the Creative Arts Center March 3-6. Special guests will be the WVU Percussion Ensemble.
Orchesis also celebrates its 77th anniversary with Dance Concert 2005, which features the world premiere of a new choreography by Teresa Lynn Chapman, the dance programs 2004 artist-in-residence, as well as pieces by the faculty and student choreographers in modern, ballet and jazz dance, as well as theatre movement.
Under the artistic direction of Professor Mary Kathryne (Kacy) Wiedebusch and Assistant Director Carole Wiedebusch, the evening performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, March 3-5. The performance on Sunday, March 6, will be a 2 p.m. matinee.
Prior to the March 6 matinee, there will be anUpfront and Backstagepresentation, beginning at 12:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre. These presentations give the public an opportunity to meet the people behind the scenes, tour backstage and visit the shops where lighting, sound, scenery, props and costumes are created.
Concert highlights includeRhythm Song,choreographed by Kacy and Carole Wiedebusch and featuring music by the internationally known WVU Percussion Ensemble; and the concerts finale, a Cole Porter Medley, also choreographed by Kacy and Carole Wiedebusch, featuring the songsBegin The Beguine,So Nice To Come Home To,Get Out Of Town,andWhat Is This Thing Called Love?
Professor Kacy Wiedebusch, who is coordinator of the dance program in the College of Creative Arts, is currently celebrating her 50th year as a faculty member at WVU . She founded the artist-in-residence program, which has been a major catalyst in the professional development of students studying dance at WVU . Each year since 1978, an artist of national reputation has been in residence at WVU to create new work and to teach and inspire students.
Chapman, who is from the University of California Long Beach, created a work titledThe Dreamers DictionaryThird Edition,a modern interpretive dance, that will be premiered during the concert.
Its important for students to have the opportunity to study with guest artists in order to incorporate new styles and new techniques with their training,Wiedebusch said.
Student choreographers in the Orchesis Dance Ensemble are Jessie Stroech, Karla Atkins, Amanda Reagan, Brianna Biro, Emily Danzer, Jackie Cain and Erin Harold. Musical selections for their works include artists such as Janet Jackson, AC/DC,
Aerosmith, Twister Sister, Prodigy, Asian Mix, Nine Inch Nails and Collin Raye.
In addition, WVU Theatre students will present a work of theatre movement calledJabberwocky,choreographed by Jessica Morgan, professor of theatre movement in the WVU Division of Theatre and Dance.
The Orchesis Dance Ensemble was founded in 1928-29 with a nucleus of young women who were experimenting with a new dance form calledcreative dance,offering the opportunity of free expression with the body as the instrument of interpretation, according to Kacy Wiedebusch.
The Ensemble has grown and known many forms to its present college company of talented young women,she said.
Wiedebusch has been artistic director of the Orchesis Dance Ensemble for the past 50 years, and she has directed and produced a dance concert at WVU during each of those years. She was also the driving force in the creation of the E. Moore Hall Dance Studio, built in 1960 on WVU s downtown campus.
Wiedebusch has received two national awards for her commitment to dance on the collegiate/national level and has been honored as a founding member of the American College Dance Festival Association. She founded the WVU Artist-in-Residence Program in 1978 and her ongoing success with 29 national and international artists has brought recognition to the WVU dance program.
She has served on the state steering committee for the West Virginia National Standards of the Arts. She has also been the recipient of many academic awards, including Outstanding Teacher. She was the first educator to research the London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and has been elected to Whos Who in Education of American Women in the South and Southwest, the East, in England and the World Millennium 2000.
Members of the Orchesis Dance Ensemble are the top students currently studying for a minor in dance at WVU . Initiated in 2000, the minor in dance currently has more than one hundred students from across the University.
Orchesis Dance Ensemble members for 2005 include: Karla Atkins, Cate Bennett, Jennifer Bennett, Brianna Biro, Jackie Cain, Ashley Charlton, Aislinn Crovak, Emily Danzer, Tabitha Dolan, Emily Greenhill, Laura Gronell, Erin Harold, Andrea Hidock, Christine Kochan, Jessica Martin, Jessie Mitko, Jamie Monsell, Jessica Mushrush, Amanda Reagan, Kristina Revell, Kaitlyn Rozich, Crystina Sowell, Jessica Stroech and Naomi Tauger.
Advance tickets for WVU Dance Concert 2004 are available at the Mountainlair or CAC Box Offices or by calling 304-293-SHOW (7469).
For more information, contact the Dance Office at 304-293-8623 or 304-293-2020 ext. 3120.