Ann Arbor Dance Works

From the Press Release:

DATE: Wednesday June 10 and Thursday June 11, 8:00 P.M.
LOCATION: Duderstadt Center Video and Performance Studio, 2281 Bonisteel Blvd (North Campus - map)

An evening of short chamber works by current dance faculty and guest artist alumni presented by Ann Arbor Dance Works, the resident professional dance company of the University of Michigan Department of Dance. The concert will feature alumna Dana Reitz performing a solo. Dana Reitz is a choreographer, dancer and visual artist who has developed and produced projects since 1973. In 1996, she and Mikhail Baryshnikov toured together with a program of solos; in 1998, she created Cantata for Two, a duet for Baryshnikov and Tamasaburo Bando (Tokyo). Her work has been commissioned and produced by the Festival d'Automne in Paris, the Hebbeltheater in Berlin, the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival, The Kitchen, and PepsiCo Summerfare, among many others. Reitz has toured extensively as a performer and teacher throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan, and she is currently on the faculty of Bennington College. She is the recipient of two New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) Awards, she is the Artistic Director of Field Papers, Inc, and her work has been supported in part by many foundations including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts.

Also featured will be alumna Leyya Tawil, who will be creating a new work inspired by the archetypal characters of the Commedia dell'Arte, particularly the play between wistful Pedrolino and the trickster Arlecchino. Tawil will collaborate with composer Topher Keyes for an original score for the work. Tawil has performed, choreographed, and taught nationally for the last thirteen years. This year marks her first international collaboration with Maqamat Theatre Dance in Beirut, Lebanon. Tawil has held faculty positions at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (Visiting Artist), the University of San Francisco and Sonoma State University. She is currently the Middlebury College Artist-In-Residence in Dance. She received an MFA from Mills College and in 2008 was the recipient of an Emerging Artist Award from the UM School of Music, Theatre and Dance.

Several current UM dance faculty will be presenting works on the concert. Melissa Beck Matjias will be restaging her solo, The Yellow Wallpaper. Amy Chavasse will be creating a new trio for the concert. Bill DeYoung and Peter Sparling will also be contributing short chamber works to the program.