SMU Meadows Dance Ensemble presents 2013 Fall Dance Concert

DALLAS (SMU) – Two world premieres and a variety of styles and genres, from classical ballet to jazz dance to the Twist, will highlight the Fall Dance Concert at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, November 13-17 in the Bob Hope Theatre of the Owen Arts Center, 6101 Bishop Blvd. on the SMU campus.

The concert opens with the world premiere of PICK-UP by Meadows alumnus Joshua Peugh (B.F.A. ’06), founder of Korea-based Dark Circles Contemporary Dance. The athletic work for 12 dancers is set to music by Dave Brubeck, Dinah Washington and deadmau5 and is described by the choreographer as “a stream-of-consciousness dance that explores experiences collected.”   Peugh returned to Dallas from Korea two years ago and has established an American branch of Dark Circles; the new company includes several SMU students and gave its first performance in September.

The second world premiere on the program is “…ain’t confidential,” a solo work for a female dancer by John Selya exploring the cryptic lyrics of Bill Callahan’s Ride My Arrow. Selya, a Tony-nominated dancer and choreographer, joined the Meadows School this fall as an artist-in-residence. He is a veteran of American Ballet Theatre, Twyla Tharp Dance and multiple Broadway productions and has choreographed for The Joyce Theater in New York, the Sacramento Ballet and the Houston Ballet, among others.

The concert continues with Dark Elegies (1937) by Antony Tudor, one of the 20^th century’s most renowned ballet choreographers and a longtime associate of American Ballet Theatre. The work is set to Gustav Mahler’s Song Cycle Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) and expresses the raw emotion of a tight-knit community faced with the inexplicable loss of its beloved children. Tudor’s favorite ballet, it is considered by many to also be his greatest.

Rounding out the program is Cathy Young’s witty and playful Zero Cool (1998), a jazz work set to Duke Ellington’s evocative Latin American Suite and Far East Suite. The piece uses intricate patterns and highly stylized movement to reference inspirations as varied as the angular design ethos of the 1960s, the choreography of jazz dance giant Jack Cole, and 1960s social dances such as the Twist, the Pony and the Cha-Cha. A performer, choreographer and master teacher of jazz dance, Young has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe, received prestigious commissions and earned multiple grants and awards for her choreography. She is currently director of the Dance Division of the Boston Conservatory.

Fall Dance Concert performance times are 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.  Tickets are $13 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7 for students, SMU faculty and staff.

For more information or to purchase tickets, call 214-768-2787 or visit http://mcs.smu.edu/calendar/event/fall-dance-concert-2.

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