CU Department of  Theatre & Dance is proud to present DANCEWORKS 2010 —“Vision” – 
A diverse and exciting evening of dance featuring choreography by CU faculty members Nada Diachenko, Michelle Ellsworth, Onye Ozuzu, and Gabriel Masson with special guest artists:  Rennie Harris, Kathleen Hermsdorf, and David Capps.

Rennie Harris, artistic director of Puremovement and guest artist in the dance department, brings his world-renowned, award-winning hip-hop style to CU.  With a fun and unpredictable aesthetic, his latest work for the stage explores the superficiality of relationships through the politically correct feelings that have been manufactured by society.  This piece is an exciting preview into this world-renowned artist’s process as he embarks on the creation of a larger work that explores our need to be loved.

Kathleen Hermsdorf, artistic director of La Alternativa and the Roser Visiting Guest Artist, presents Stranger.  This piece examines the preconceptions and experiences of strange, stranger and ‘the stranger’ via the body, its motive and its relationship to others.  Physical, audio and visual layers of information intersect through scenes and situations of interior/exterior, psychic/iconic, raw/raconteur and curiosity/mystery.  The work delves into the identity of outsider alien, shadow, incognito, and invisible, and reveals some of the discomfort, exposure and surrender that unknowns lure and require.

David Capps, Artistic director of David Capps/Dances, collaborates with faculty member Toby Hankin in a duet inspired by the haunting lyrics of three songs from Shubert’s Winterreise.  The piece depicts the inner journey of two travelers as they ruminate on their past, and perhaps, future relationship.  It ranges from wistful to fierce, from passionate to pliant, and capitalizes on the performance skills of the performers, who have collaborated on many projects for more than 15 years.

Nada Diachenko, in collaboration with her dancers, presents Shared Spaces - a dance for five women who explore and share the dance space with each other and five pieces of furniture.  Hints of tenderness, support and tension are revealed as the dancers move to excerpts from Visual Diary, an electronic soundtrack composed and performed by Sergio Cervetti for a film made from photographs by visual artist Valerie Sonnenthal.

Michelle Ellsworth will premiere Excerpts of five or more dances with hamburgers,which explores what is possible and desirable about dancers dancing with fast food while simultaneously asking the question, “where is the dance that is lost in choreography?’  Speed, levitation, violence, salt and ritual provide the container and/or space for this new art/food experience.

Onye Ozuzu presents Love Being Song, A dance for nine women dancing as one.  It is a lush, grounded, sensationally oriented piece that explores communication as a way to establish integration, dissolve barriers, see as one, hear as one, act as one, grow, and remember. 

Gabriel Masson will premiere a pas de deux commissioned by professional ballet dancers, Amy Docktor and Steven Straub.  Choreographed to the romantic violin chords of Max Richter’s,On the Nature of Daylight, Masson explores the contemporary possibilities of this traditional form.

DANCEWORKS 2010 — “Vision” promises to be an exciting and engaging evening of dance.  From high stylin’ hip-hop to full-out physicality, there will definitely be something for everyone.  Please join us as we celebrate the work of our esteemed faculty and welcome these artfully gifted guests.  An evening you won’t want to miss!