April 29: Coker College Dance Program presents its Senior Thesis Dance Concert

The Coker College Dance Program will present the Senior Thesis Dance Concert April 29, May 1 and May 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Black Box Theater of the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Performing Arts Center. The concert will include solo and group works by dance major seniors Akhira Ansari, Kirsten Sanders and Ashley LeSage.

Ansari was inspired by research on structural oppression, specifically police brutality against minority groups for her group work, “The Hate That Fear Produced,”. Through visceral movement, video projections and unpredictable conflict between the dancers on stage, Ansari’s work captures a snapshot of a churning city that questions the idea of American justice. “Breathe,” Ansari's solo work, examines the concept of “man vs. self” as she takes the audience on a backward journey through her struggle to accept change. Change is inevitable; nothing is ever constant. It is here that Ansari learns the ultimate meaning of 'Fight or Flight'.

Sanders, in her group work, “Waves of Fervor,” explores the five stages of grief as explained by Swiss psychiatrist Kubler-Ross. Through dynamic and emotional movement, the dancers depict the five stages of grief in their individual journey through the work. “Hallucinations,” Sanders’ solo work, chronicles events from her dream journal. Using gestural movement vocabulary, she will move through the space with intensity as she brings those dreams to life.

LeSage’s research for her group work, “Conflicted Conformity,” examines finding one’s individualism in a society that values conformity. Using contrast between movements that are slow and weighted with those that are quick and rhythmic, this piece exhibits how conformity can bring either comfort or chaos. “Perceptions,” LeSage’s solo work, demonstrates the challenges of being a woman in America’s beauty-conscious society through gestural movement, spoken text and use of props.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. Admission for Coker students, faculty and staff is free with a Coker ID.

For more information, please contact Angela M. Gallo at 843-383-8381 or agallo@coker.edu.

The dance major at Coker College offers students a broad range of courses that prepare them for several career options in dance and provides opportunities for students to enter into advanced professional dance training. The mission of the dance program, within the context of a liberal arts degree program, ensures graduates are prepared both for performance-related work and for additional study at the graduate level.

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Coker College readies undergraduates for personal and professional success through a distinctive four-year program that emphasizes a practical application of the liberal arts as well as hands-on and discussion-based learning within and beyond the classroom. Coker is ranked among the “Best Colleges” in the South by U.S. News & World Report as well as The Princeton Review. Located in Hartsville, S.C., Coker is within two hours of the cultural, financial and recreational resources of Charlotte, Columbia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach.

February 26 and 27: Coker Hosts Faculty and Guest Artist Dance Concert

Coker College’s Dance Program is hosting the Faculty and Guest Artist Dance Concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Feb. 26 and 27, with a final performance at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28 in Watson Theater of the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available at the door and are $10 for adults and $5 for senior adults and students. Admission is free with Coker ID.

“The Faculty and Guest Artist Concert is an exciting performance that presents various choreographic points of view,” said assistant professor of dance Meredith Sims. “This concert allows our students to experience diverse approaches to choreography and dance while developing their performance skills. The audience will see an eclectic evening of dance that investigates universal ideas through movement with poignancy, humor, and depth.”

The concert includes the following works by faculty artists: “Billy Pilgrim,” choreographed by Sims, explores adventurers traveling across new surfaces towards a desired destination;  “Inconsequential Reverence,” choreographed by associate professor of dance and chair of dance and music Angela Gallo, explores the portrayal of women in society, the various stereotypes in existence and the ways women relate to each other; “Fragments from the Painted Sea,” choreographed by assistant professor of dance Kristin Hapke, is a physical investigation of loss and confusion while navigating the charted waters of life; “Fleet,” choreographed by adjunct faculty member Heather Watkins, is a high energy contemporary work exploring the whirlwind of modern life while depicting a journey requiring assistance, endurance and ability.

Coker’s Repertory Dance Company will perform “Co si Comincia,” choreographed by guest artist Meg Schriffen, assistant professor of dance and program director of dance from Winthrop University. Schriffen’s work was inspired by her summer visits to the Sorrento region of Italy. “Path,” choreographed by guest artist and internationally acclaimed Sean Curran of the Sean Curran Company, is a transcendent piece in which the dancers embody the tones, qualities, and ever-changing relationships of vocalists from Talbot's "Leon.” A member of Curran’s company, Rebecca Arends, came to Coker’s campus to reset this piece for Coker students who then performed with the company during their concert last fall.

October 15: Master Dance Technique Class

Séan Curran Company will also hold a Master Dance Technique Class in Choreography at Coker College  on Wednesday, Oct. 15 from 12:00-1:50 p.m. that is open to the public for a cost of $15 per person. 

To register, contact Gallo at agallo@coker.edu or (843) 383-8381. 

In addition, the Company will lead a discussion about the gender issues present in Curran's work on Oct. 15 from 2:00-3:50 p.m. in the Black Box Theater. The discussion is free and open to the public.

October 16: Coker College Dance Program Hosts Guest Dance Company Seán Curran Company

By Lois Greenfield
http://www.seancurrancompany.com/gallery.php

Coker Hosts Residency with Guest Dance Company

The Coker College Dance Program will host guest dance company Seán Curran Company as part of the Hartsville-Coker Concert Association’s 2014-2015 season. The Company’s performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16 in Watson Theater at the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Performing Arts Center.

“It is really an honor to have the Seán Curran Company here at Coker College,” said Angela Gallo, associate professor of dance and coordinator of the dance major. “For the students to be able to both work and perform on the same stage with this company is an excellent opportunity that many undergraduate students in dance never receive. While the Company is in residency here at the college, they will also provide numerous master classes, some for the dance majors and some that are open to the campus and community. There are not many dance programs in the country, especially at private colleges like Coker, that bring in companies of this caliber. We are truly excited for this residency.”

The Company will present an evening of work set to vocal music, ranging from Baroque opera to contemporary a capella works and popular electronic music. This years-long exploration focused on physical expression of the human voice. At times abstractly conceptual yet always imminently human, Curran and his dancers discover the myriad ways of giving voice to dance.

The program opens with two excerpts from the evening-length work “Travel Songs,” created in collaboration with the Grammy Award-winning King’s Singers. “Even Here” navigates composer John McCabe’s aural landscape evoking the American southwest while Joby Talbot’s “Path” sets the dancers (students of the Coker College Dance Program) on a ritual journey. A member of Curran’s company, Rebecca Arends, came to Coker’s campus earlier this month to work with students learning this piece. In each piece, six dancers embody the tones, qualities, and ever-changing relationships of six vocalists.

“Hard Bargain” is a danced conversation between four individuals with differing opinions and agendas. Performed to selections of Georg Friederich Handel’s arias for countertenor, this work presents an abstract gestural language to give the dancers voice; they address, lecture, and converse with one another, revealing four dancer/diplomats at work and at play.

“Social Discourse” is a contemporary urban folk dance set to contemporary music by Thom Yorke and Radiohead. The electronic soundscape seamlessly melds voice and instrument, providing a rousing—and at times mysterious—motor for the dancing. Here Curran emphasizes the body as instrument by introducing increasingly complex physical, interpersonal, and spatial tasks that the dancers must solve through movement exploration and invention.

As part of its residency, the Company will also hold a Master Dance Technique Class in Choreography on Wednesday, Oct. 15 from 12:00-1:50 p.m. that is open to the public for a cost of $15 per person. To register, contact Gallo at agallo@coker.edu or (843) 383-8381. In addition, the Company will lead a discussion about the gender issues present in Curran's work on Oct. 15 from 2:00-3:50 p.m. in the Black Box Theater. The discussion is free and open to the public.

Tickets for the Oct. 16 performance are $25 for adults. Admission for Coker students, faculty and staff is free with a Coker ID. Admission for high school and college students is free with valid ID. In order to minimize disruptions for seated patrons and onstage artists during the performance, seating will be closed at 7:30 p.m. After the performance, the Company will host an open question and answer session.

Curran formed the Seán Curran Company in 1997. Known for its wit, intelligence, ingenuity, and uncanny physical humor, Curran’s choreography has been described as “meticulously structured and contagiously high-spirited” (The Village Voice) and “a breathtaking tour de force” (The New York Times). His company has received numerous choreographic commissions and has premiered works throughout the U.S. as well Germany and France. For more information, visit www.seancurrancompany.com.

written by media relations coordinator Elizabeth McCarley.

October 2-4: Coker College Dance Program's Fall Student Choreography Showcase

The Coker College Dance Program will present its annual Fall Student Choreography Showcase Oct. 2, 3, and 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Watson Theater of the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Performing Arts Center.

“The annual Fall Student Choreography Showcase is a highlight in our season,” said Angela Gallo, associate professor of dance and coordinator of the dance major. “It is always exciting to see the work that the students are producing. It is great to see their artistic voices emerging.”

Student choreographers for the concert include: senior Ashley Lesage; juniors Cierra Stinson, Tierra Foxworth and Darrell Daney; Sophomores Olivia Shaw and Miranda Knorr and freshman Jayden McCree.

“The Student Choreography Showcase provides a great opportunity for new and more experienced choreographers to experiment and develop their own unique ideas of choreography,” said Kristin Hapke, assistant professor of dance. “Students also learn versatility, something that is expected from professional dancers, as they perform in an array of movement styles with different choreographic approaches. We strive here at Coker to create an environment that mimics the real world realities, including tight deadlines, auditions and meeting adjudication criteria."

"I'm excited for the Student Choreography Showcase because I love seeing what my fellow dancers create,” said LeSage. “The student showcases bring our tight-knit dance family closer by giving us the opportunity to get to know each other better, both personally and artistically, through the works that we present."

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. Admission for Coker students, faculty and staff is free with a Coker ID.

For more information, please contact Gallo at 843-383-8381 or agallo@coker.edu.

The dance major at Coker College offers students a broad range of courses that prepare them for several career options in dance and provides opportunities for students to enter into advanced professional dance training. The mission of the dance program, within the context of a liberal arts degree program, ensures graduates are prepared both for performance-related work and for additional study at the graduate level.

Release written by media relations coordinator Elizabeth McCarley.

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Coker College readies undergraduates for personal and professional success through a distinctive four-year program that emphasizes a practical application of the liberal arts as well as hands-on and discussion-based learning within and beyond the classroom. Coker is ranked among the “Best Colleges” in the South by U.S. News & World Report as well as The Princeton Review. Located in Hartsville, S.C., Coker is within two hours of the cultural, financial and recreational resources of Charlotte, Columbia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach.

Coker College's Daché Green receives SCICU Scholarship

Daché Green, a senior at Coker College, has been selected to receive a UPS Scholarship provided through South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (SCICU).

Green is the son of Margaret Giles of Georgetown, S.C. He is a dance major with a concentration in performance/choreography at Coker.

SCICU is a statewide association for private colleges and universities that is affiliated with the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). At the national level, CIC teams up with the UPS Foundation to distribute funding of the UPS Scholarship. This year, CIC awarded nearly $1.5 million in scholarships from its UPS Educational Endowment Fund to private institutions of higher learning across the nation, including a grant of $36,000. These scholarships are awarded on the basis of the students’ academic achievement and financial need.

“Through this national scholarship program, CIC and UPS are delighted to make it possible for 609 deserving young men and women to attend the private college or university of their choice,” said Richard Ekman, president of CIC. “By directly assisting students with significant financial need, CIC and UPS are helping a new generation of students achieve their dreams of a college education."

“UPS is proud to continue that spirit of giving by partnering with CIC to support thousands of students working to become the leaders of tomorrow by obtaining an education from our nation’s independent colleges,” said Eduardo Martinez, president of The UPS Foundation. “We are proud, too, that The UPS Foundation and UPS employees directed $97.5 million in philanthropy and in-kind services, including more than 1.8 million hours of volunteer service, to local communities around the world.”

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The Council of Independent Colleges is an association of 645 nonprofit independent colleges and universities and more than 90 higher education organizations that has worked since 1956 to support college and university leadership, advance institutional excellence, and enhance public understanding of private higher education’s contributions to society. CIC is the major national organization that focuses on providing services to leaders of independent colleges and universities as well as conferences, seminars and other programs that help institutions to improve the quality of education, administrative and financial performance, and institutional visibility.

The UPS Foundation is responsible for facilitating community involvement to local, national and global communities. UPS is a global leader in logistics, offering a broad range of solutions including the transportation of packages and freight, the facilitation of international trade, and the deployment of advanced technology to more efficiently manage the world of business. Since its founding in 1907, UPS has built a legacy as a caring and responsible corporate citizen, supporting programs that provide long-term solutions to community needs.

Coker College readies undergraduates for personal and professional success through a distinctive four-year program that emphasizes a practical application of the liberal arts as well as hands-on and discussion-based learning within and beyond the classroom. Coker is ranked among the “Best Colleges” in the South by U.S. News & World Report as well as The Princeton Review. Located in Hartsville, S.C., Coker is within two hours of the cultural, financial and recreational resources of Charlotte, Columbia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach.