UCR IS DANCING 2013
Under the artistic direction of Visiting Assistant Professor Joel Smith, seven undergraduate dance majors will showcase original choreography that reflects five quarters of study in dance composition. The students have been working with distinguished faculty members Susan Rose and Wendy Rogers, as well as Smith, since the fall of 2011.
Each student choreographer has developed a dance using a variety of compositional structures/methods that reflect the dance department’s focus on experimental and unconventional performance. The concert reflects these choreographers’ diverse dance styles, as well as their interests in social, political and cultural discourse. Through investigations of various dance tools — partnering through physical contact, use of space, time and energy, abstract movement vocabularies–they provoke questions about identity, gender, power and community.
UCR IS DANCING allows the viewer to gain insight into the labor and dedication required to compose dances and is a forum to educate and entertain students and members of the Riverside community.
The choreographers include: Sarah Cardona, Tifani Green, Jadell Lee, Christiana Powell, Natalie Rajasinghe, Saundra Ridgle and Sidney Spiegel.
Biography:
Artistic Director Joel Smith’s research on gender and queer representation lives in his work as a choreographer, director and writer. He has been making theatrical dances in Los Angeles over the last 8 years and is currently Co-Artistic director of casebolt and smith, a contemporary dance/theater duet company, with artistic partner Liz Casebolt. Through collaboration and a shared interest in making meta-theatrical dances that blend improvisational structures, speaking, singing, gesture, and contemporary movement vocabularies, they have created a cutting-edge brand of dance making that is often described as smart, accessible and experimental.
casebolt and smith has been produced all over the world, including at: Joyce SoHo in New York City; Belfast Circus School in Belfast, Northern Ireland; Dance Theatre of Ireland in Dublin, Ireland; University of Surrey in Guildford, England; Vancouver International Dance Festival in Vancouver, Canada; The Southern Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Contemporary Art Forum in Santa Barbara, California; The Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, California; The Actor’s Company Theatre in Los Angeles, California; and at Saint Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, New York.
Joel Smith received an MFA for Experimental Choreography from UC Riverside in 2004 and a BA in Studio Art and Theater Design from UC Davis in 2000. He is currently on the faculties of UC Riverside, UCLA, and Scripps College.
TICKET AVAILABILITY
Advance Tickets: available at the University Theatre Fine Arts Ticket Office, Monday-Friday, 10:00am-3:00pm
Walk-Up Tickets: available one hour before each performance.
Ticketmaster: (213) 480-3232, (714) 740-2000, www.ticketmaster.com