November will be a month to remember for dance enthusiasts, as acclaimed dancers take to the Taft stage and lead classes in our studio.
On Wednesday, November 16 renowned choreographer Adele Myers will teach a contemporary/modern dance class in our dance studio. Myers was a guest choreographer for our dance concert last year, and her company, Adele Myers and Dancers, performed on campus as part of a guest residency. The company will be on stage again Friday, November 18 (details below). The November 16 session begins at 1:30, and is open to all students interested in participating in the dance concert.
Priti Ghatlia will lead a master class in Bollywood and classical Indian dance in the Taft dance studio on Friday, November 18 beginning at 4 p.m. Ghatlia is this year’s guest choreographer for our dance concert, and will choreograph a Bollywood piece for the performance.
Adele Myers and Dancers take to the stage in Bingham Auditorium Friday, November 18 at 7:00 p.m. The performance is free, and open to the public. The show features two of the company’s popular pieces, “Theater in the Head,” and “This Dance is What You See.”
"Theater in the Head" is a quest for intimacy between performers and their audience. It offers spectacle then reveals its mechanics by stripping them away. Developed with composer, Josh Quillen of the So Percussion ensemble, the forty-five minute quintet incorporates Myers' robust athleticism fused with theatricality and humor. The concept for "Theater in the Head" originated during an Emerging Choreographer residency at the Bates Dance Festival and was further developed during a one-year creative residency at the Vermont Performance Lab (VPL).
"This Dance Is What You See" experiments with being in control of being out of control. The work was originally commissioned by the 2010 Dance New Amsterdam Theater’s New York Summer Dance Intensive. Variations of the dance have been commissioned by: Connecticut College Dance Department; Full Force Dance; Rhode Island College; and the Summer Stages Dance Festival.
In addition to being Artistic Director of Adele Myers and Dancers, Myers is a Professor of Dance at Connecticut College. Myers’ choreography has been presented nationally including Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out; Bates Dance Festival; Tanglewood Music Center; Velocity Dance Center; New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas; Stonington Opera House; DanceNowNYC; Dance New Amsterdam and Joyce SoHo. As a performer, she was a member of Joy Kellman/Co. in NYC for six years and a guest artist with other companies including Momix. Myers was also a choreographic assistant on several projects for Jawole Zollar, Artistic Director of the Urban Bush Women (UBW). Commercial credits include choreographing a record release event for Aerosmith and industrials for TVGuide, among others. Myers earned a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, an MFA at Florida State University, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Performance Studies at New York University.