W&L Repertory Dance Company to Perform March 17, 18 and 19

By Julie Cline
March 10, 2017

“Bringing together professional guest artists, faculty and current students creates a beautiful synergy. A palpable force of teaching and learning is created. This artistic process enables a shared experience through collaboration.”

The Washington and Lee University’s Department of Theatre, Dance and Film Studies presents the W&L Repertory Dance Company’s winter concert in a program of multifaceted dance works created by nationally renowned choreographers.

Performances will be March 17-18 at 7:30 p.m. and March 19 at 2 p.m. in the Keller Theater, Lenfest Center for the Arts. Tickets are required.

This concert of seven works contains the work of four guest-artist residencies that occurred throughout the year. Choreographers Charlotte Boye-Christenson, Autumn Belk, Sarah Jacobs and Faith Levine each spent three days on campus offering master classes and then giving their work to W&L dance students to prepare for the winter concert.

Boye-Christensen’s work, “Key,” is a tribute to Glenn Gould, one of the most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century.

Belk’s dance, “Coiffure,” was inspired by the 1923 book “Art and Fundamentals of Hairdressing,” in which three women ponder the significance of hairstyles in the 1920s as they lounge on a luxurious settee and flip through the latest Vogue.

Of the two works set by Jacobs, “Bulbous Bouffant” is a humorous gestural trio inspired by The Vestibules’ sound score of the same name. Choreographed using one movement per word, abstract and comic gestures highlight rhythmic vocal play. She describes her second piece, “Dear Willy,” as “a playful and theatrical group work that both capitalizes on and unravels the romantic tropes of Motown music and Hollywood film.”

Levine’s work, “Disjecta,” provides a window to the internal politics of the contemporary art world.

Elliot Emadian ’17, who will attend an M.F.A. dance program this fall, will perform a solo he created last summer at the American Dance Festival.  Based on interviews conducted with dancers and personal experience, his work looks closely at gender stereotypes and uses comedy to teach broader lessons in acceptance.

The evening wraps up with a new work-in-progress by Artistic Director Jenefer Davies. “La fenêtre” focuses on café culture as a center of political, social and cultural life. It explores the dynamics of conversation and debate and the blurring of the distinctions of class and social status.

On curating this performance, Davies said, “Bringing together professional guest artists, faculty and current students creates a beautiful synergy. A palpable force of teaching and learning is created. This artistic process enables a shared experience through collaboration.”

Tickets are required and can be purchased at the Lenfest Center box office (540) 458-8000 or online at:

https://www.wlu.edu/lenfest-center/current-season/wandl-repertory-dance-company-winter-dance-concert