The School of Dance celebrates an evening of premieres in their 2022 Gala Concert, returning to Kingsbury hall for this performance April 1 & 2, 2022. The dance students performing in the Gala are joined by the student musicians of The Utah Philharmonia, conducted by Dr. Robert Baldwin. The evening promises to be a delight for the senses and celebrates live performances presented by the College of Fine Arts.

The Gala presents an evening of mixed repertory featuring the talents form choreographers and students in both Ballet and Modern Dance, with premieres by Faculty Artists Christopher Alloways-Ramsey, Jay Kim, and Brent Schneider, along with Guest Artists Chun-Lin Tseng and Natosha Washington.  Each choregographer brings a unique point of view of the world of dance with their latest creations.

Flower Festival at Genzano, originally choreographed by August Bournonville is restaged by Christopher Alloways-Ramsey and expanded into a ‘suite’ with original choreography from Alloways-Ramsey. The complex choreography highlights two young people in love in 1858, Genzano, Italy during the annual Festival of Flowers.

In The World In Reverse, guest artist and alumna Natosha Washington visually explores a haunting quote, “every night I dream of a place. A world that was made for me. I’m beginning to lose faith in dreams…” The stage is filled with performers in the large cast, bringing Ms. Washington’s vision to glorious fruition.

Brent Schneider presents a foray into the combination of live and video performers in his new work Experiment #84. Schneider has in the past presented several works that combine visual projections, however, he discovers new possibilities with this latest work, thanks to the advances in video editing technologies. “The body in motion continues to captivate me,” explains Schneider, “these additional layers are still based on the human body’s kinetic potential.” The score is all “vintage” recordings from Laurie Anderson, edited by Schneider.

Faculty Artist Jay Kim collaborates with guest artist Chun-Lin Tseng to create a new vision of Carmen for the second act of the performance. Jay Kim explains, “unconstrained by the times and norms of society, Carmen represents the independence of a strong free spirit that loves passionately with freedom from inhibition.” Carmen Suite by Schedrin/Bizet will be performed by The Utah Philharmonia, Conducted by Dr. Robert Baldwin.

Tickets are available at tickets.utah.edu. This is an Arts Pass event, U students get in free with UCard.
Both performances will also be live streamed at dance.utah.edu/virutalshows for those unable to attend the live performance at Kingsbury Hall.