Students of the Emory Dance Company perform five compelling new works from Atlanta choreographers in a series of shows slated for Thursday, Nov. 19, through Saturday, Nov. 21, in the Dance Studio of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.
The performance includes works from Emory faculty members Gregory Catellier and George Staib as well as guest choreographers Mara Mandradjieff, MaryGrace Phillips and Kristin O'Neal.
Tickets for the Friday and Saturday evening shows are sold out. As of Wednesday afternoon, one ticket remained for the 8 p.m. show on Thursday. Tickets are still available for the 2 p.m. show on Saturday.
The performance includes the following works:
Gregory Catellier: "You, Me, & Us"
Catellier's new work, set to the music of Lou Reed, deals with group dynamics, the individual and mood: how the individual can feel like "the other" and how a group can either unknowingly reinforce that feeling, or embrace the individual.
"Recently my choreographic work has revolved around trying to create authentically human works," explains Catellier. "The movement may be complex, structured, even athletic, but the audience feels a connection to the dancers as people."
George Staib: "Bury the Olive Branch"
With original music by Emory faculty member Kendall Simpson, Staib's piece stems from the moments when we feel we are talking to unlistening ears. What do we do when we aren't heard? When we aren't understood? When do we move on and when do we fight back?
"My current choreographic explorations focus on exaggerating physicality to reveal situations and interactions that are rooted in immediacy," says Staib. "I look to create an emotional impact by removing emotion from movement."
Mara Mandradjieff: "Satin and Tulle"
Mandradjieff's choreography is informed by her own original research, with both choreography and research resonating with and furthering the other. Her current work considers body politics and fall within scholarship of Gender and Sexuality Studies. Satin and Tulle subtly comments on its own constructive nature, while suggesting a similar analysis of the dancers on stage, as well as the institution of ballet itself.
MaryGrace Phillips: "in mediation of triangles (which are not labyrinths) I & II"
Phillips' work was built in collaboration with the dancers as an oceanic meditation on the works of waiting and preparation. Phillips is a choreographer and performing artist who frequently works in close connection to visual environment, installation and literary arts. Phillips will present version I of her work Thursday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m., and version II on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.
"I believe the mythologizing of our everyday human experience can work as a generous act of transformative beauty that encourages the compassionate connection of humanity to itself and to each other," says Phillips.
• Kristin O'Neal: "Spaces Between"
In O'Neal's piece, 10 dancers dart and swirl through tight and familiar pathways as they gradually fall into a "stuck" pattern of repetition. The dancers explore what it means to fall victim to habit by frenetically focusing between things, never setting eyes on each other. The score by Michael Wall eventually awakens each of the dancers to see one another directly and understand what it means to listen, witness, listen and be a part of a community.
Tickets are $15 for the general public, $12 for discount category members including Emory faculty and staff, and $8 for Emory students.
Tickets can be obtained through the Arts at Emory Box Office online, by phone (404-727-5050), or in person. Discounted tickets are available by phone and in person only. Online sales end three hours prior to each performance. The Box Office will open one hour prior to each event. For more information, visit arts.emory.edu.