Dance 2013

April 1, 2013

Pacific Lutheran University Dance ensemble presents Dance 2013, the annual spring dance concert performance, Friday April 26 and Saturday April 27 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in Olson Auditorium.

Showcasing the versatility and artistry of student performance and talent, the evening promises to dazzle with original and creative choreography. A stunning collection of various dance genres features student, guest and faculty compositions. The dance concert is under the direction of Maureen McGill, associate professor of theatre/dance in the School of Arts and Communication at PLU.

Tickets are available at the Concierge desk in the Anderson University Center or at the door of the show.

There are nine student choreographers this performance: Sara Stiehl – senior dance team captain from Colorado who choreographed four of the dances, Mamie Howard – a junior from California directs the PLU Lute Nation step team and created a video of the history of African American women in America and choreographed a dance to accompany the video, Alumna Emily Fahey choreographed a piece to the poetry of Dylan Thomas, First-year Jonathan Adams created a hip-hop dance about domestic violence, other student choreographers include Avelon Ragoonanan, Elizabeth Maloney, Kelsey Roberts, Helen Garman and Miranda Winter.

The guest choreographer is Carla Barragan. She has choreographed a modern work based on a tale from the First Nations Peoples of the Pacific Northwest, entitled Raven and The Man That Sits on the Tides. Barragan received her MA in dance education from Teachers College Columbia University in New York and her BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase in New York. In 1990, Barragan launched her choreography career in New York City through Birlibirloque, now BQdanza. In 2008, she won the Margaret K. Williams “excellence in the Arts”award in Pierce County. She is the dance specialist at The Elk Plain School of Choice in Tacoma, a school selected as best in Arts in Washington state last year by Arts Ed Washington. Her work has been commissioned for Strictly Seattle, the Seattle International Children’s Festival, Ecuador’s National Dance Company, and UDLA Danza in Puebla, Mexico, month others.

Barragan recently appeared in the first book of “100 Experimental Audiovisual Artists.” She was a dancer with Pat Graney in Seattle and with Senta Driver’s HARRY when she lived in New York. She was visiting professor at Universidad de Las Americas in Puebla, Mexico, a professor and coordinator of Performing Arts at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador, 1995-1998.

SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS

Sara Stiehl ’13 has danced and choreographed with the PLU Dance Team and Dance Ensemble during her four years at PLU. She has a passion for dance and most recently performed with the Dance Team at the Dash Center for Performing Arts in Tacoma. Stiehl has a passion for community and social justice and will be working abroad in Thailand as a Human Rights activist following May graduation.

Mamie Howard ’14 is a sociology major, in a Pre-Law Tract. She founded Lute Nation Step in 2011, formerly the PLU STEP TEAM. The goals of Lute Nation are to participate with community outreach and actively inspire and empower youth.

“We are scholars before steppers and all have goals as individuals that empower us as a team using STEP as a vehicle for change in the world,” Howard said.

She has dance and choreographed with the PLU ensemble for three years.

THE DIRECTOR

Maureen McGill is an associate professor of theatre/dance in the School of Arts and Communication at Pacific Lutheran University. She has a BFA in Dance from the University of Utah and an MA in Theatre from Western Washington University. She recently presented her dance, “Death and The Angel” at the International Association of Near Death Studies conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. in the Fall. She is the co-author, with Nola Davis of the non- fiction book, Live From the Other Side, a collection of real life stories.