1/4/2005

Contact: K.E. Schwab  -- 724-738-2199;  e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu

‘LOOKING IN, DANCING OUT’ IS THEME FOR SRU WINTER DANCE THEATER EVENT

           SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University Dance Theater is celebrating the new year with “Looking In, Dancing Out,” a showcase of works by guest artists, dance faculty, guest faculty Teena Custer and featuring the talented choreographers and dancers of the SRU dance department.

          The concerts open at 8 p.m. Jan. 27-29 in Miller Auditorium. Following the first two performances, meet-the-performers question-and-answer sessions are planned. Tickets, $5 general public, $3 students and senior citizens, will be available at the door.

Guest artists Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer created a work titled “Crowd” for 14 SRU dancers during a residency last spring. The choreographershave been designing and performing together since 1978. An acclaimed New York dance duo, they are known for their catapulting partnering and charged physicality – readily seen in the exciting work made for SRU.  Recipients of numerous federal and New York State grants, Bridgman and Packer have toured throughout the United States and have appeared in Scotland, France, Ireland, Switzerland, Japan, Singapore and China.

Custer presents an ensemble work in hip-hop styles, including locking, popping and the electric boogaloo. Her students studied the dance forms and their cultural contexts intensively in her repertory and jazz courses during fall semester. Custer received her master of fine arts degree from The Ohio State University where she specialized in hip-hop and break dancing and their fusion into traditional dance forms such as ballet, jazz and modern dance.

SRU faculty Melissa Teodoro will present an emotional work titled “Desplazados” based on the displacement of people due to ethnic and civil war. Teodoro educated SRU students about her native country, Colombia, and its 50-year war among left-wing guerilla groups, right-wing paramilitary and the Colombian government.

Talented student choreographers present diverse works, from introspective journeys to extroverted displays of physicality. Choreographers participating in the program include Shannon Altman of Springdale, Jennifer Blankenship of Kane, Nicholas Falcone and Erin Maser, both of Pittsburgh, and Amy Schnelle of Portersville.

 PN, PgN, WPN, PR