Last modified: Monday, March 24, 2003
Fresh and inventive dance: African American Dance Company to present concert April 5
EDITORS: In addition to the media contacts listed, for assistance you may wish to contact Martha Dutra, who is in charge of communications and marketing for the African American Arts Institute, at 812-856-1797 or mrdutra@indiana.edu. Pictures of previous concerts and performances are available to the media.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The African American Dance Company will present its annual spring concert April 5. Under director Iris Rosa, the Dance Company has become noted for its high energy, rhythm, precision and grace. It delivers the spirit of dance styles of the African Diaspora.
The performance will begin at 8 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave., in downtown Bloomington. Advance tickets are $8 for students and seniors and $13 for adults. Show day prices will be $12 for students and seniors and $17 for adults. Tickets are available in advance at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater's Sunrise Ticket Office. Call 812-339-6741 for more information.
The concert will feature a wide range of selections from the group's repertoire of original choreography in a fusion of modern, jazz, African and Latin American dance styles. Members begin their association with the group as students in a class offered by the IU Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies.
The feature choreography piece this year is an interdisciplinary project between Valerie Grim and Rosa, both associate professors in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies. Titled "Once Upon a Rural South," it is a three-part piece illustrating struggle, liberation and spirituality in the lives of African Americans in the rural southern United States in the late 1930s.
Another featured piece is "Storms," choreographed by Lori Madl, assistant to the African American Dance Company. The piece uses forms and styles of modern and African dance movements to create a panorama of exciting movement to depict the idea of storms. A third piece is called "Collaborations 2003."
This year's student collaboration piece, "Cultural Pass Times," will feature students divided into small groups in which they collaborate and compromise, using dance elements to choreograph a piece that reflects the theme.
"I am amazed by the diversity of this year's repertoire. Come and experience African American dance with us," Rosa said.
The Dance Company is one of three performance ensembles of the African American Arts Institute, located in the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center at 275 N. Jordan Ave. on the IU Bloomington campus.
