About 60 dancers from the five undergraduate Claremont colleges will perform in the annual Pomona Spring Dance Concert, opening in Seaver Theatre (300 E. Bonita Ave., Claremont) on Thursday, April 27. The concert features a range of new and reconstructed choreography by students, faculty members and guest artists, set to music from contemporary composers, pop stars, jazz singers and folk musicians.
Performances include 鈥淔loor Plastique,鈥 created by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, founders of the Denishawn School and known as the 鈥渕other and father鈥 of modern dance. Laurie Cameron, dance program director, reconstructed the dance, which is an historic classroom exercise that challenges the dancers to master complex weight shifting while embodying stylistic elements of many diverse cultural dance forms.
The 禁漫天堂 theatre and dance faculty choreographed five of the nine performances, including 鈥淐ompany of Orbs鈥 by John Pennington, artistic director of the dance program. Pennington, who spent 14 years with the Lewitzky Dance Company, chose music by 20th-century composers William Duckworth and Philip Glass for the performance.
The dances also include works by seniors from Pomona and Pitzer colleges. Willa Hevly PO鈥17, a public policy major and veteran of 12 dance productions, created 鈥淢onolith Duets鈥 mixing standards by Billie Holiday and Etta James with the Super Mario 鈥淕ame Over鈥 theme by Harris Cole. Lancelot Yulin Liu, PI鈥17, a double major in quantum economics and dance, choreographed and performs in 鈥淰icissitudes鈥 to music by Xiaopei Li.
In addition to the dancers, more than 70 students from all the colleges worked in various roles such as stage management, costume design, lighting design and box office administration to bring a vibrant and kinetic concert to life.
Performances of the Spring Dance Concert will be held at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 27 through Saturday, April 29, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 30 at the Seaver Theatre (300 E. Bonita Ave., Claremont). Tickets are $11 general admission and $6 for students, faculty, staff and seniors.