University of Montana Announces Residency Events with Susan Marshall & Co.

The University of Montana School of Theatre and Dance is excited to announce Guest Artist Residency Activities with renowned dance company, Susan Marshall & Company

About the Artist:  Susan Marshall has created over thirty dance works in collaboration with the dancers of Susan Marshall & Company, including "Cloudless." Marshall has also created dances for the Lyon Opera Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Montreal Danse. Her signature aerial duet, "Kiss," is in the current repertory of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Pacific Northwest Ballet. A 2000 recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Marshall has received a Dance Magazine Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Brandeis University Creative Arts Citation, American Choreographer Award, and two NYSCA Fellowships. She is the recipient of three New York Dance and Performance Awards (BESSIES) for Outstanding Choreographic Achievement: the first, in 1985, following the company's premiere concert at Dance Theater Workshop; the second, in 1997, for her collaboration with Philip Glass on "Les Enfants Terribles;" and the third, in 2006, for "Cloudless."

About the Project:  Through the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Dance Program, American master dance maker Susan Marshall and members of her dance company will visit the UM Dance Program and set excerpts of her seminal choreography "Cloudless" on UM dance students. UM dancers will perform "Cloudless" as a featured work in the UM School of Theatre & Dance's April production of Dance in Concert, tour "Cloudless" to the Northwest Regional Conference of the American College Dance Festival at Idaho State University in March, and through the support of the CoMotion Dance Project, tour the work to regional grade 6-12 schools as a discussion/performance. 

About Cloudless Suites (2006):  "Cloudless" was developed in celebration of the Susan Marshall & Company's 20th anniversary. The work is an evening-length collection of 18 solos, duets, and small group pieces. With these dances, Marshall revisited many of the concerns and structures that framed her early work. As Marshall prepared to celebrate her 20th anniversary, the ongoing, enthusiastic response to her earlier pieces reignited her interest in making dances that wed familiar movement to formal structures, resulting in potent interpersonal narratives. "Cloudless" comprises self-contained pieces, including works that are pure dance, theatrical, and comedic. These short-form narratives are integrated seamlessly with explorations into lighting, set, video, and prop design that are part and parcel of these short narratives. Susan Marshall & Company will restage five to six excerpts of "Cloudless" for The University of Montana Dance Program, bringing the work of this important choreographer to the campus community, Missoula, and western Montana.