NewDanceWorks2008 Features Colby-Sawyer Student, Faculty Choreography and Film, Sculpture and Music of Guest Artists
NEW LONDON, N.H. – Colby-Sawyer College will host NEWDANCEWORKS2008, a performance of original, contemporary concert dance works that cross all genres. Choreographed by Colby-Sawyer students and faculty members, the event will also feature the filmmaking, music and sculpture of three guest artists.
Performances will be held on Friday, April 25, and Saturday, April 26 at 8 p.m., with a question-and-answer session following Saturday's show, in the Sawyer Center Theatre. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and can be reserved through the Box Office at 526-3670.
Led by Adjunct Associate Professor of Fine and Performing Arts Susan Barnard of Bow, N.H., NEWDANCEWORKS2008 features her own work, “Changing Places” and the premiere of “UnStable” as well as solos, duets and group pieces by students in her special topics class, Making Dances: An Exploration in Choreography. In her piece “UnStable,” Barnard collaborates with guest filmmaker and sound designer Robert Todd of Emerson College. She will also wear a mask for this piece created by Bow, N.H sculptor Andy Moerlein.
Student works for this production were choreographed by Maddie Lenox '08 and Kristen Peterson '08, who will be joined by Amber Richardson '09 and Lyndsey Feliciano '09 in performing a group piece. During the dance course, the students visited the college's Marian Graves Mugar Art Gallery to connect images with movement. In addition, they observed the works of other choreographers through watching and reading about how they put their dances together.
Ms. Barnard has been teaching at Colby-Sawyer for six years. Previously, she taught dance in colleges and studios throughout New England, New York and nationally. Her works have been commissioned and performed in the United States and internationally. She has performed with Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, Chen and Dancers, Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig, Merian Soto and Pepon Osorio, among others. She holds an M.A. and M.F.A. in dance from SUNY College at Brockport and a C.M.A. from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies.
The dancers will share the stage with the works of fine artists, Emerson College faculty filmmaker, Rob Todd, sculptor Andy Moerlein, and Concord, N.H.-based composer Sasha Kravitz. Todd, professor of film production, is an award-winning experimental filmmaker and sound artist whose short works defy categorization. In addition to his film-dance collaboration with Ms. Barnard, two of his short films, “Dig” and “Nest” will be presented during the event as if they were dance pieces.
Sculpture by Moerlein has been exhibited throughout the United States, and in New England at the Currier Museum of Art, the Hood Museum, Millbrook Gallery in Concord NH, and the Andres Institute. He has also shown in some less traditional settings such as the Boston Common, and the Franklin Park Zoo in Roxbury, Mass. Along with his work as a sculptor, Moerlein is an art educator and gallery director at the Derryfield School. The music of Kravitz will be featured in the brief movement interludes between dance pieces in the show.
-Amber Cronin '11
Amber Cronin, a Colby-Sawyer College student, writes for College Communications.
Colby-Sawyer, founded in 1837, is a comprehensive liberal arts college located in the scenic Lake Sunapee Region of central New Hampshire. Students learn in small classes through a select array of programs that integrate the liberal arts and sciences with pre-professional experience. Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.colby-sawyer.edu.
Colby-Sawyer College, 541 Main Street, New London, N.H. 03257 (603) 526-3000.
