Choreographers and dancers from the 2008 graduating class of the MFA program in the Department of Dance at New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts will showcase their work one final time in a three-day concert series, May 21-23. The concert series will feature mostly new works and includes collaborative pieces with graduate students from the Department of Design for Stage and Film and the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.
Entitled LAST on the continuum , the concert series will open Wednesday, May 21 and run through Friday, May 23. Curtain is at 8:00 p.m. Performances will take place in the Fifth Floor Theater, located at 111 Second Avenue (between 6th and 7th Streets). Admission is free. A post-performance discussion will be held each night. For reservations and more information, call 212. 998.1982, Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.
The works will be performed on a rotating schedule so that each piece will appear twice in the three-day series. Premieres include: Diario Di Un Pazzo, a piece for six women incorporating spoken word and light humor by Patricia Noworol; Cold House You Kept by Sydney Skybetter, a work for eight dancers that contains insinuations derived from a line taken from Arthur Millers The Crucible set to the music of Henryk Góreckis String Quartet No. 2 Op. 64 Quasi una Fantasia, and performed by the Kronos Quartet; Persona by Yin Yue, a dance quartet with an original score by Jeffrey Smith of the Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Writing Department; Gone! by Carlos A. Cruz Velázquez; and Happy Cast on a Scale, an exploration of life by Lori Byargeon.
Also on the program are: Christina Noel Reaves Eterna Notte, previously presented at the La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival 2008; a new dance by Heather Brown; and solo pieces by Kristen Arnold, Philip Montana, and Clare Cook.
The MFA degree in dance at NYU Tisch School of the Arts is a rigorous two-year training program designed to prepare students for the professional world of performance and choreography. Scholars fully engage the mind and body in preparation to exceed the expectations of the next generation of dance makers and performers. Gus Solomons jr and Linda Tarnay are the faculty advisors for the MFA final concert.