W&L Repertory Dance Company Presents Winter Concert The award-winning ensemble’s performances will run March 14-16.

By Emily Innes
February 29, 2024

The Department of Theatre, Dance and Film Studies at Washington and Lee University presents the award-winning W&L Repertory Dance Company in concert on March 14-15 at 7:30 p.m. and March 16 at 2 p.m. in the Keller Theater at the Lenfest Center for the Arts.

Tickets are required and available online or in person at the Lenfest Box Office.

The Repertory Dance Company will present a program of six multifaceted dance works featuring the choreography of Jennifer Salter, Vivian Kim, Sandra Meythaler and Sarah Foster-Sproull, who each completed artistic residencies at W&L this past year and taught master classes for the community and held intensive rehearsals with W&L dance students.

“Bringing guest artists to campus gives the students the opportunity to experience a professional dance environment, learn innovative works and different teaching methodologies, and practice embodied learning,” said Jenefer Davies, professor of dance and theater and artistic director of the W&L Repertory Dance Company.

Sarah Foster-Sproull, senior lecturer in dance studies at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and choreographer in residence at the Royal Ballet of New Zealand, choreographed “Forgotten Things,” an intricate work filled with optical illusions. She served as the Pemberton Visiting Scholar in Theatre, Dance and Film Studies at W&L, and her residency was made possible through a generous contribution from W&L’s Center for International Education.

Jennifer Salter’s “Slow Vacancy” is a raw interpretation of how dementia causes the brain to deteriorate, crafted from her own experience watching her grandfather battle dementia. The piece is intended to transport the audience into the mind of a dementia patient and features an original recording written and performed by Salter, who is a professor of dance at San Jacinto College. Salter’s artistic endeavors include dance films, several of which have been presented at national film festivals and art exhibits around Houston, Texas, and she was featured in Voyage Houston Magazine’s recent “Inspiring Stories” series.

Sandra Meythaler, director of Roanoke Ballet Theatre and adjunct professor of ballet at W&L, created a solo piece for Charlotte Peete ’24 that expresses the rhythms and movement of the sea and the peacefulness its proximity creates. Meythaler was a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Ecuador and has performed ballet and contemporary dance around the world.

The Repertory Dance Company will also perform an encore performance of “Sit. Stay. Down.,” choreographed by dancer, performer and educator Vivian Kim and originally performed during the ensemble’s Fall Term 2023 concert. This piece was inspired by Kim’s own life and her research on the philosophies and lexicon of Confucian Analects for Women. Kim, who was born into a traditional South Korean family and raised in the United States, uses this piece to explore her personal experience of reconciling Eastern and Western lifestyles and expectations.

Rounding out the program is an expanded performance of Davies’ “Wallflowers/Wildflowers,” which explores marginalization and gender inequality through satire and shines a light on the hidden work of being a woman, and a piece choreographed by Angela Tu ’24 that blends contemporary ballet and aerial sling to explore contrasts of shape, style and rhythm.

Order your tickets online today or call the Lenfest Center box office at 540-458-8000 for ticket purchase information. Box office hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. The cost is $18 for adults, $16 for seniors, $14 for W&L faculty and staff and $8 for students.

For a full list of this season’s performances, visit the Lenfest Center’s website.

The Lenfest Center for the Arts, home of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Film Studies and the Department of Music and Department of Art and Art History is a multi-use facility designed and equipped to accommodate a broad spectrum of the performing arts, including theater, musical theater, opera and operetta, choral and band music, dance and performance art in one energizing complex.