Fredonia Dance Ensemble program to feature variety of styles
Members of the Fredonia Dance Ensemble perform a piece entitled “The Alliance,” which was choreographed by guest artist Jon Lehrer. The ensemble will perform in concert on May 3, 4 and 5 in Marvel Theatre at Rockefeller Arts Center on the SUNY Fredonia campus.
By Doug Osborne-Coy
A variety dance styles will again be featured when the Fredonia Dance Ensemble presents its annual concert from May 3 to 5 in Marvel Theatre at Rockefeller Arts Center on the SUNY Fredonia campus.
Performances are planned on Friday, May 3 and Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 p.m. There will be 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, May 5. This Department of Theatre and Dance production is the final event in the 2012-13 Walter Gloor Mainstage Series.
Directed by Helen Myers, director of dance at SUNY Fredonia, the concert brings together the work of six choreographers, 20 student performers and a host of faculty and student designers and technicians.
One notable piece, choreographed by Myers, is called “raptuREgret” and features the music of New York City-based composer Daron Aric Hagen. His song “Rapture and Regret” will be performed live by The ANA Trio.
The trio is made up of SUNY Fredonia School of Music faculty members Angela Haas (voice), Anna Kissell Harper (piano) and Natasha Farny (cello). The music is based on Virginia Woolf’s “The Waves” and Isek Dineson’s “Out of Africa.”
Other pieces include a fast-paced work by guest artist Jon Lehrer, entitled “The Alliance,” and a sultry jazz number, “Tierney’s Suite,” by guest artist Kylee Pike Fassler.
Lehrer is the founder and artistic director of LehrerDance, an innovative contemporary dance company based in Buffalo. Since 2007, LehrerDance has toured extensively, bringing its trademark athletic style to many audiences and earning positive reviews. As “Dance Magazine” stated, “Jon Lehrer’s strikingly original choreography transformed the stage into an energy field of super-charged particles.”
Lehrer teaches master classes around the world and has set choreography for numerous professional and collegiate dance companies. He has received many awards, including the UB Distinguished Alumni Award and, most recently, Chicago National Association of Dance Master’s Artistic Achievement Award.
Fassler is development manager at Rochester City Ballet where she works in grant writing, donor relations, database management and special events. As one of the first members of Rochester City Ballet’s young professionals group, the Good Pointe Society, she now serves as staff liaison to the steering committee.
Fassler received her bachelor of fine arts degree in English from SUNY Geneseo and her master of fine arts degree in dance performance and choreography from SUNY Brockport.
In addition to the works by Myers and the guest artists, the concert will feature pieces choreographed by Theatre and Dance faculty members Sam Kenney, Paul Mockovak and Angelika Summerton.
The Fredonia Dance Ensemble concert is part of the Lake Shore Savings Season at Rockefeller Arts Center.
Tickets are available through the SUNY Fredonia Ticket Office in the Williams Center, by phone at 716-673-3501 (1-866-441-4928) or online at www.fredonia.edu/tickets.
