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Spring Appalachian Dance Ensemble Premieres Eight Original Pieces and Features Guest Choreographer

Feb. 18, 2014. The Appalachian State University Department of Theatre and Dance presents the Spring Appalachian Dance Ensemble (SADE) in Valborg Theatre on campus at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday Feb. 26-Saturday, March 1. This popular event features artistic works by both undergraduate students and dance faculty. 

Four student choreographers will showcase their work alongside pieces by faculty members Emily Daughtridge, Sherone Price, Holly Roark and guest choreographer Rodger Belman.

Spring_DanceTicket prices start at just $8 for Appalachian students and are $13 for faculty, staff and seniors and $15 for adults. For more information, visit www.theatre.appstate.edu or call the box office at 828-262-3063 or 800-841-ARTS or the Schaefer Center box office at 828-262-4046. Tickets can be purchased in person at the Valborg Theatre box office Monday through Friday, 1-5 p.m. and at the Schaefer Center box office Monday through Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Belman is a faculty member at Florida State University and the American Dance Festival (ADF) whose choreographic work has been presented nationally. He is a former touring artist with the North Carolina Dance Festival and has worked with numerous companies including Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians, Twyla Tharp, Rachel Lampert, Mark Taylor, Joy Kellman and Kristin Jackson. 

During his February residency at Appalachian, Belman has taught classes and reset an excerpt from an ensemble piece titled “Trace” that premiered July 25, 2003 at the Peck School of the Arts MainStage Theater, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It has been performed by the East Carolina Dance Theatre, Milwaukee Ballet School and Kaleidoscope & Ballet Pensacola. 

The following faculty dance pieces will be performed during SADE:

“Fuerzas Vitales” arises from collaboration between dance studies faculty choreographer Emily Daughtridge and musician/composer Dr. Shawn M. Roberts. The work danced by seven women is accompanied by live music performed by Roberts. The music in three movements comprises Santerian and Yoruban hymns arranged by Roberts as inspired by Daughtridge’s choreography, which explores shifting dynamics of energy.  

“Skedman’s Inn” choreographed by Sherone Price explores personal family history inspired by the story of his grandfather’s life and work.  Skedman’s Inn was a store/gas station/liquor house/juke joint owned by Price’s grandfather and located on a dirt road off the highway between Chapel Hill and Pittsboro from the 1940s through the 1970s. Price’s work was funded by the 2013 Choreography Fellowship from the North Carolina Dance Alliance and premiered in November 2013 at the NCDA Annual Event. 

“Love, Lust, and other stories” choreographed by Holly Roark is a study of human relationships and how we experience them.  It focuses primarily on when individuals first meet and what comes of that moment.  Roark explores the questions of how do we know if it is love at first sight, love that will fade, or just pure and simple lust.

 The following student pieces will be performed:

“Per-sea-ve,” choreographed by student Caroline Daniel, is a reflection of Caroline’s creative process as a visual artist. It translates the idea of “mark-making” as a drawing/painting technique, into movement. To add a layer, it is also being looked at through the lens of the ocean. The dancers explore and represent the experience of being on the seafloor, reacting to life’s circumstances, reflecting within that process, and coming to a new understanding or perception of “their world.”  

“Of a Demon in My View” is choreographed by student Jenna Veal. She examines the nature of a virus attacking a host cell and how it relates to personal inner turmoil and the inner demons that we battle on a daily basis.

“Strange Desire,” choreographed by student Nisha Jackson, is a dance that represents women having to find a balance between being feminine and strong while still maintaining a sultry presence. 

“The Fault of Our Cadence,” choreographed by student Kaitlyn Curran, explores what happens when people in a strict “type A” society experience a disruption in their daily cycle of life.

The Valborg Theatre is located on the north side of Chapell Wilson Hall on Howard Street.  The theatre entrance faces the back of the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on King Street.  Parking is available after 5 p.m. on campus in faculty lots and the College Street parking deck near Belk Library and Information Commons.

The Department of Theatre and Dance is housed in the College of Fine and Applied Arts. Its mission is to provide liberal arts educations for the B.S. degree in teaching theatre arts and the B.A. degrees in dance studies or theatre arts. The department also values the opportunity to offer coursework for integrated learning through the arts to the general university student population. Vital to the support of this mission is a dynamic co-curricular production program that provides exemplary theatre and dance experiences to departmental students, the university community and the region. The departmental philosophy is to support the university’s liberal arts environment through a balanced and integrated emphasis on teaching, creative activity, scholarship and service.