W&L Repertory Dance Company to Perform March 30, 31 and April 1
The Washington and Lee University Department of Theater, Dance and Film presents the award-winning W&L Repertory Dance Company in an evening of multifaceted dance works.
The concert will be held at W&L’s Lenfest Center for the Arts on March 30, 31 and April 1 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at (540) 458-8000 or online.
This concert of eight works will contain the collaboration of two guest artists, Danah Bella and Emily Cargill, who did four-day residencies on campus earlier in the year. During their time here, they gave lectures and master classes and set their choreographic works on advanced student dancers who auditioned for the roles.
Danah Bella, founder of d a n a h b e l l a DanceWorks, has performed throughout the country, Mexico and Italy, and was a master teacher for Bates Dance Festival and American College Dance Festival. Her dark humor is on display in “Poca a Poca Se Anda Lejos,” a peek at the life of has-been beauty queens.
Emily Cargill, artistic director of Emily Cargill & Dancers, has performed in Atlanta, Houston, New York and Detroit. She dances professionally with Braided Light Dance Project and Staibdance. For this show, Cargill will present a powerful investigation into misconceived identity in “Meadow by a Train.”
Liza Deck, W&L dance adjunct and City Modern Ensemble artistic director, worked intensively over the course of the semester creating “Deeply Missed by All Who Knew Her.” Student dancers contributed to this improvisation-based choreographic piece, which is directed and shaped by the choreographer.
Sandra Meythaler, an acclaimed, award-winning international dancer and W&L adjunct, will present a contemporary ballet solo that incorporates massive swaths of fabric to create an ocean to dance upon. Fabric is also used to great acclaim in returning guest artist Dana Fredericks’ aerial performance. Flying high above the audience, Fredericks will create beautiful patterns, spins and catch-your-breath drops 40 feet in the air.
Included in this concert are two outstanding student works. Elliot Emadian ’17 and Lisa Stoiser ’15 won coveted spots by creating new works that contain inspired dance shapes and new and emerging ideas in pairing dance and technology.
The evening wraps up with a new work by Jenefer Davies, associate professor of dance at W&L. Davies, whose choreography has received acclaimed reviews in Scotland, Greece and Spain, is a master artist-teacher at W&L who was recently selected from artists across the country to bring her choreography to New York City for performance this spring. “The 25th of March” is a new 30-minute piece that juxtaposes R&B and rock ‘n’ roll music from the 1950s with an unconventional viewpoint on the biblical Annunciation story. Combining humor, explosive and powerful dance and an abstracted narrative, Davies explores a humanist’s perspective on acquiescence.
On creating 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 where people who previously didn’t know one another, but have a shared experience in dance, become unified as they collaborate in the artistic process.”
