UI Dance Company Home Concert, February 23 through 26

Wednesday, February 23, through Saturday, February 26, 8 p.m.

University of Iowa's Space/Place Theatre, 20 West Davenport Street, Iowa City IA

Returning to live performances in the University of Iowa's Space/Place Theatre for the first time in two years, UI Dance Company delivers four presentations of its annual Home Concert February 23 through 26, evenings that promise to be packed with curiosity, humor, and empathy in a diverse exploration of the human experience through movement and metaphor.

UI Dance Company is the resident repertory and touring company of the Department of Dance, and the group performs under the direction of visiting assistant professor Stephanie Miracle and associate director Alex Bush. Between February 23 and 26, this ensemble of 10 dancers will perform works by renowned choreographer and dance scholar Thomas DeFrantz, Jennifer Kayle, Kristin Marrs, Melinda Jean Meyers, and Kieron Sargeant, and also on the program is an intergenerational work based on a letter exchange and collaborative process with seniors from the Iowa City Senior Center.

Included among the half-dozen vignettes in this year's UI Dance Company Home Concert are: This is what I want, boasting choreography by Thomas DeFrantz in collaboration with the performers; magnificent, featuring choreography by Melinda Jean Myers in collaboration with the dancers; and Seltsame Seligkeit (strange bliss), its choreography by Jennifer Kayle with collaborative movement development from the dancers, including the original cast of Erin Corcoran, Ethan Rome, Amy Simonson, and Lauren Vanchina.

Kristin Marrs' Beats Per Minute, the re-staging of a 2012 work, finds the dancers partnering with four metronomes, whose role is to keep time, direct timing, and create an aural soundscape that changes the performers' and the audience's relationship to time and rhythm. Originally conceived as a choreographic exercise to explore how speed affects movement, the piece evolved as speed inevitably conjured the pervasive hectic, urgent aspects of contemporary life. Kieron Dwayne Sargeant's Come Walk in My Shoes explores ideas regarding how woman are viewed based on the shoes they wear, and raises questions about femininity and the character perceived based on the shoe choices. What’s causing the viewer to gaze? What are the spaces and places you see both shoes and bodies operating together?

Finally, Trace Fold Encloss was developed through a collaborative process facilitated by UIDC directors Alex Bush and Stephanie Miracle, with the full company and partners from the Iowa City Senior Center. Dancers and seniors exchanged letters that explored themes of home, place, memory, and sensory experience over a period of six weeks, after which the company and senior partners embarked on the development of movement in response to the letters, crafting the experience into a work that explores these themes.

The UI Dance Company Home Concert will be performed in the University of Iowa's Space/Place Theatre February 23 through 26, admission to the 8 p.m. presentations is $8-14, and more information and tickets are available by calling (319)335-1160 and visiting Hancher.uiowa.edu/tickets.