UTA Theatre Arts And Dance To Present DANCE DECONSTRUCTED, New Works By Students And Faculty

The University of Texas at Arlington Department of Theatre Arts and Dance will present Dance Deconstructed, November 21 through 23, at the University of Texas at Arlington Fine Arts Building in the Studio Theatre.

The program features new dance works choreographed by faculty and students. Student choreographed works include: MetamorphaCIS by Sam Morales; Maelstrom by Axel Patino; If Tomorrow Had No Border... by Natalie Gonzales; Cold Winter's Night by Peyton Wilkinson; and DANCIMATION by Macy Thiebaud.

UTA dance student and Musical Theatre major, Thiebaud was inspired by the idea of blurring the lines between reality and alternate universes through her work, DANCIMATION, by exploring gesture and play. UTA Dance Minor Gonzalez's If Tomorrow Had No Border... is loosely based on Jason De Leon's The Land of Open Graves, telling the story of lives lost on the Sonoran Desert, exploring themes of displacement and survival.

Under the artistic direction of UTA Assistant Professor of Dance Laurie M. Taylor, Dance Deconstructed brings new works to the stage through innovative choreographic ideas, diverse movement vocabularies and artistic mentorship. The evening features Taylor's Broken Yolks, Shattered Chains, along with Dance faculty Meredith Knight-Treminio and Claudia Orcasitas's works, Let the Womxn Do the Wxrk and The Human Season, respectively.

Taylor is a Liberian American choreographer and creative culturalist. Her work centers around iterative and creative practices of "placeness," posing questions around the reconceptualization and functionality of "place" as a thinking-based movement practice. She has toured nationally and internationally with her company, Laurie M. Taylor/Soul Movement, as well as with Nicholas Leichter Dance, Urban Bush Women, Francine E. Ott/The Walk, Aguibou Bougubali Sanou, among others. Taylor has performed in over 20 countries, with notable performances at Montpellier Danse Festival, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Madison Square Garden and the Strathmore Center.

Dance Deconstructed plays November 21 at 7:30pm, November 22 at 7:30pm, and November 23 at 2pm in the Fine Arts building Studio Theatre at UTA. Tickets are $22 for the public, $15 for UTA faculty, students, and seniors, and $10 for theatre majors. You can purchase tickets at www.utatickets.com.