The University of Hawai'i October Dance Performance Pivots to the Digital Stage

The University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's Department of Theatre + Dance and Kennedy Theatre are proud to present Virtual Dance Performance to showcase the talents, visions, and inspired imaginations of student choreography, improvisation, and dance for the camera films.

Presented online this performance combines undergraduate and graduate dance students, choreographers, technicians, and designers together to create an innovative digital production. Virtual Dance Performance will be streamed online at 6:00pm HST on October 16, 17, and 18. Streaming tickets range from $5-15.

Dance Faculty Advisor for this production is Dr. Kara Jhalak Miller, an Associate Professor of Dance at UHM. When asked about this upcoming production Dr. Miller said, "The student dancers at UHM constantly seek to better themselves and their work through imagining new possibilities for the stage and screen. This particular performance series will be an amalgamation of visions utilizing both live dance performance presented virtually and through digital screendance films."

When Dr. Miller was asked how the department is handling the recent changes to rehearsal and performance practices, she responded, "The top priority of the Theatre and Dance faculty is to ensure the health and safety of all students, performers, choreographers, and audiences during this pandemic. Our goal is to be as healthy, active, and creative as possible." She continues, "During a crisis like this, the role of dance and the arts becomes more central to our lives. Our dancers are meeting this challenge with great creative force and vision, inventiveness, originality, and expression."

In pivoting to a digital production with social distancing in mind, student choreographers had the choice to audition a solo, audition a digital ensemble piece composed of individual dancers on multiple screens in separate spaces, or submit a series of dances edited together as a Dance Film. Choreographers are quickly adapting their live performance practices for a digital platform. They are experimenting with software, interfacing with the architecture of the digital frame in the aim to create vivid performances, and exploring how physical bodies continue to be a strong vibrant presence in the digital realm.

The ability to stream performances offers these student performers a viewing audience from all over the world. The Dance program encourages everyone to attend these performances to support our emerging student choreographers and the dance stories they are creating during these extraordinary circumstances.

For ticket information, please visit: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/liveonstage/virtualdance1/.

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