Performing
There are a wide variety of opportunities to perform and present work at Dance at Illinois. We embrace, encourage and support a broad array of performance activities ranging from highly produced concerts on the world-class Krannert Center proscenium stages to site-specific presentations, to spontaneous bursts of dance in unexpected places.
Faculty and guest artist choreography is featured in two annual concert series in the Krannert Center Colwell Playhouse Theater. Students are involved in the creative development of new and existing works by our world-class faculty and such guest artists as Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller, Doug Elkins, Lynn Dally, Beverly Blossom, Bill Young, Joe Goode, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and Susan Marshall. Our commitment to reconstructions of dance classics include the recent performances of the masterwork D-Man in the Waters by Bill T. Jones, the first University performance of Twyla Tharps' The Fugue; the Midwestern premieres of Nijinsky's original choreography for L'apres-midi d'un Faune, and Martha Graham's Panorama; José Limòn's Concerto Grosso and A Choreographic Offering; Paul Taylor's Esplanade, Doris Humphrey's Soaring, Alwin Nikolais' Sanctum and Tensile Involvement; and Tally Beatty's Mourner's Bench.
There are two annual performance series presented in Krannert's more intimate Studio Theater: a showcase of graduating MFA candidates' thesis works, and a juried concert of choreography by both graduate and undergraduate dance makers. Our own studio/theater in the Krannert Center is utilized for the annual series of Senior Thesis concerts, and other work choreographed by our community.
Dancers are at the forefront of enlivening the campus by moving dance outside the theater walls. Our community creates numerous site-specific and improvisational performances in parks, gardens, trees, parking lots, foyers, stairways, museums, abandoned buildings and elevators. Our dancers stretch our ideas about movement in space and time as they create dance-for-camera projects, which are captured on You Tube, cell phones, as well as presented at formal video festivals.
In our Lecture-Demonstration class, participants perform, teach and engage with diverse populations in a variety of settings, including the public schools, health organizations and senior citizen communities. Opportunities for performance in musicals, plays, operas and contemporary music concerts in collaboration with the Departments of Theater, Opera, Art & Design are ongoing. Each year our students travel to the American College Dance Festival to perform and through interactive technology we virtually and simultaneously perform with dancers in other spaces and countries.
Our entire community is committed to sharing work in all stages of development in order to further dialogue and deepen our involvement in the creative process of dance making and performing.
