November 1, 2017
The Columbia College Dance Company presents its annual Fall Choreographers’ Showcase on Friday and Saturday, November 17th and 18th at 7:30pm in Cottingham Theatre on the Columbia College campus. The Columbia College Dance Program’s Choreographers’ Showcase is a concert highlighting works submitted by members of the CC Dance Company and selected by a jury panel made up of dance faculty and officers of the Columbia College Dance Company (CCDC). This fall’s concert features eight original contemporary works produced by CC student choreographers: CJ Anderson, Briana Davidson, Taylor Dumdei, Uriah Huffman, Lydia Ray, Demery Trantham, and Meredith Yuhas. Lighting design for the showcase is by Cottingham theater artistic technical director, Patrick Faulds.
Two Senior dance education majors, Briana Davidson and Taylor Dumdei have works selected for the Showcase. Dumdei’s work, ReAct considers cause and effect reactions with distinct musicality and captivating movement patterns. Davidson has created an emotionally evocative work as a tribute to her “gone too soon” brother BJ incorporating powerfully expressive movement, vocals and a cast of twenty dancers.
One and Other is a duet aerial dance co-choreographed by CJ Anderson and Meredith Yuhas, also senior dance majors. One and Other produces a tremendous visual impact using a vibrant scarlet silk filling the space with images of mountains, tunnels and fiery entanglements. Both Anderson and Yuhas have works they have choreographed individually on the program. Anderson’s Ossify explores “what it means to feel petrified in the face of adversity; physically/mentally/emotionally unable to do anything at all.” Clean Hands and Dirty Hands choreographed by Yuhas features a dinner table. Yuhas says, the table can represent “a hub for connection empathy, tension, and celebration, this shared experience is designed nostalgically for the viewer, raising questions of how one’s first attempt at connection unfolded. A question I continue to ask throughout the work is: who was not invited to the table?”
The eight adjudicated dances represent a diverse mix of concepts and choreographic styles, from aerial dance to works driven by emotions of loss, perseverance, and celebration. All eight works, each compelling and distinctive in conception and craft, spring from women’s voices and resonate with a mission to articulate the choreographers’ struggles and ideals in a precarious world.
Tickets are $10 General Admission and $5 Senior Citizens/Students. For reservations, call the Cottingham Theatre Box Office at 803.786.3850.