WINSTON-SALEM – A world premiere by guest artist Janis Brenner will be featured on the program for the upcoming Fall Dance Concert at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). New contemporary works by UNCSA alumni Juel Lane and Diego Carrasco Schoch (a new faculty member), as well as faculty members Brenda Daniels and Dianne Markham, will round out the program.

Fall Dance will be presented at 8 p.m. Nov. 18-22 and at 2 p.m. Nov. 22 in Agnes de Mille Theatre on the UNCSA campus, 1533 South Main St., Winston-Salem. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students and seniors.  For more information or to order tickets, call the UNCSA Box Office at 336-721-1945 or visit www.ncarts.edu/performances.

Janis Brenner sets a version of a work commissioned by The Juilliard School in 2004, “HeartSTRINGS For 18.” The music for the work employs four popular songs from the 1960 – by Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, but arranged and played by the Hampton String Quartet.

Brenner is an award-winning dancer/choreographer/singer/teacher who is artistic director of Janis Brenner & Dancers in New York City. She has toured in 31 countries and is recognized as a “singular performer” with a multifaceted artistic range. Her company has toured throughout the world and is known for its "emotionally authentic" and musically diverse work.

Fall Dance will mark Juel Lane’s choreographic debut. Inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” the work is set to the music of Duke Ellington and The Basement Boys. Written in 1951, “Harlem” gives an inside look at the loss of goals, struggles, and the depletion of the American Dream.

Lane is a member of Ronald K. Brown/Evidence Dance Company, based in New York City. He graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2002.   

Diego Carrasco Schoch presents a radical re-working of a dance he choreographed in 2004 for UNCSA's Fall Dance Concert. It will feature a larger cast of six women and three men, new lighting design, new set design, new music and additional movement phrases.  The working title is "Migration," and, as the title suggests, the dance's genesis lies in images of flight and birds presented within an abstract context. This choreography tends to emphasize a fluid, flowing style of movement expressed in the upper body, coupled with a high level of technical precision and strength, extended lines, and athleticism.

Schoch is the newest member of the Contemporary Dance faculty. He attended UNCSA from 1984-86, later dancing with Fort Worth Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, and Milwaukee Ballet, where he achieved the rank of principal dancer.

Brenda Daniels creates a new sextet to J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations. Brilliantly played by Glenn Gould, these variations run the gamut from playful to poignant, rambunctious to elegiac. The dance will reflect the multifaceted and shimmering beauty of the music.

Daniels is the recipient of the Betsy Friday Distinguished Professorship in Contemporary Dance and the assistant dean for the Contemporary Program. She has served on the UNCSA faculty since 1995.

Dianne Markham is creating a new work for Fall Dance entitled “Tangled Tango.” Composer David McHugh of the UNCSA School of Filmmaking, with percussionist John Wilson, will play live. The very physical duet is a journey of couple in phases of progressive involvement.

Markham has performed with the Murray Louis Dance Company and Nureyev and Friends. She joined the UNCSA dance faculty in 1980.

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of the Arts”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from middle school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. UNCSA is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. UNCSA is located at 1533 S. Main St., Winston-Salem. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.

 

 

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