Opening April 28, the NIU Spring 2016 Dance Concert will illustrate the many facets of dance expression, including modern, classical and contemporary ballet.
The Mainstage Series production, presented by the School of Theatre and Dance, is a mixed repertoire dance show with three dance pieces under the choreographic direction of faculty members Richard Grund, Blair Burkhalter and Paula Frasz.
The concert “speaks volumes to [the students’] capabilities as dancers and their ability to perform classical and postmodern works interchangeably,” says choreographer Rich Grund.
“It’s great to see how diversified our dance majors are,” he adds. For his piece, Grund is restaging a ballet classic of “Swan Lake” 140 years after its conception.
According to Grund, “Swan Lake” to this day is the classical standard and a learning tool for students. Because the show’s steps are so difficult, every ballet company is measured by how well they execute the technical beauty of this masterpiece.
The dance concert also includes Paula Frasz’s modern take on “Of the Joy That Kills.” Through its unique blend of modern dance and theatre, this performance breaks all boundaries of typical dance.
Frasz challenged her dancers by creating a modern dance interpretation of a play, using an elaborate set, props, spoken words, acting skills and folk music, to tell the story of a woman’s exploration of freedom and loneliness. Set in the 1800s, Frasz’s “Of the Joy That Kills” is about a woman’s struggle to accept her husband’s death and her reaction when she gets to see him one last time.
“I hope the audience takes away a new found respect for possibilities of modern dance and dramatic literature,” says Frasz. She adds that the audience should have a “new found appreciation for performers that can equally dance and act.”
Burkhalter says she really wanted to choreograph a piece that fit in with themes already in the show. Her contemporary ballet, “Inside Four Walls,” is a representation of what dancers experience inside [a dance studio] on a day-to-day basis.
However, Burkhalter says, “It (also) represents the mental aspects of dance – that a dancer’s mind is always in the studio, even when their physical body is not.”
Her piece shows the highs, the lows and the enduring aspect of the dancers’ long-term relationship to dance.
Burkhalter believes that even long after a dancer chooses to leave dance as a career, they feel that dance is still a part of them. “Dance is their constant,” she says. “They love it like a person.”
“I don’t necessarily expect the audience to know it’s about the relationship to dance specifically,” she says, “but just to see the intention that [a meaningful relationship] is there and should be a universal feeling for everyone.”
The Spring 2016 Dance Concert runs April 28 through May 1 and is performed in Huntley Middle School Auditorium, 1515 S. Fourth St., near the NIU DeKalb campus. Curtain times are 7:30 p.m. weekdays and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. All nonpackage general admission tickets are $17 for adults, $14 for senior citizens, $9 for students and $5 for children ages 5-12.
Ticket reservations and additional information are available by contacting the NIU School of Theatre and Dance box office at (815) 753-1600 or at www.niu.edu/theatre/.
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