University of Montana School of Theatre & Dance presents DANCE IN CONCERT

The UM School of Theatre & Dance celebrates an evening of sophisticated and cutting-edge original choreography as well as the restaging of Act II of the classic ballet Giselle in its 2017 production of Dance in Concert. New works by guest artists, students, and faculty from the renowned UM Dance Program will share the stage of UM's beautiful Montana Theatre. Join us to experience these five inspiring dance works with styles including contemporary modern dance, dance theatre, and classical ballet.

Highlights of this season's Dance in Concert include:

Probable Fall, a provocative and compelling piece of dance theatre crafted by guest artist Rachael Lincoln. Lincoln's piece was made in collaboration with six dance majors during a week-long residency on the heels of the presidential election. While not overtly political, the raw material of the piece was seeded with the thoughts and feelings that arose in the wake of this historic event. Lincoln is an assistant professor in the University of Washington Dance Program and has danced for the past fifteen years with the world-famous vertical Dance Company Bandaloop. She has performed her work in Germany, Poland, Portugal, Cyprus, Indonesia, Ireland, and throughout US venues including Theater Artaud, Stanford University, Sushi Performance Space, UCLA, and Middlebury College.

Professor Michele Antonioli's restaged production of Act II of the ballet Giselle. Giselle, one of the most iconic ballets of the Romantic era of ballet, is a story of betrayal and love that transcends death. This portion of the ballet showcases 16 UM dancers, beautifully costumed in traditional long white tutus and set in an ethereal and mysterious forest.

Lead performers include Kathleen Evans as Giselle, Rebecca Baker as Myrtha, and Logan Prichard as Prince Albrecht.

"root", Professor Nicole Bradley Browning's continuing creative journey of environmentally inspired dances. The first of this series, in one drop, was featured in 2016's Dance in Concert-rain fell in the Montana Theatre, creating a magical veil through which the audience experienced the dance. Dance in Concert 2017 premiers the next chapter of the journey. Set to Philip Glass's moving, urgent, and contemplative "Mad Rush," the new choreography poises dancers as powerful conduits of natural elements: wood, wind, and fire.

Associate Professor Heidi Jones Eggert's exuberant dialogue between 12 dancers and two musicians as they collectively jam with bodies and instruments in her new creative exploration, Percussion Personified. Musicians and dancers meet on stage to celebrate rhythm and motion.

Peach & Pit, a raw and physically powerful exploration of beauty and the grotesque choreographed by dance major Logan Prichard. Prichard, a sophomore in the School of Theatre & Dance, masterfully blends hip-hop, jazz, and contemporary modern dance vocabulary to provide audiences with a stunningly visual and vicariously physical experience.