On Saturday this year’s Dance Ensemble students will be headed to Davenport, Iowa to partake in an extensive art festival titled “Venus Envy Quad Cities” that celebrates women in the arts.
This event has been going on for nearly a decade and this year will feature about 50 artists including painters, photographers, musicians, performance art and the men and women of Knox’s 2014 Dance Ensemble.
Knox dancers will be performing two pieces at Venus Envy, set respectively by Assistant Professor of Dance Kathleen Ridlon and Associate Professor of Dance Jennifer Smith which have been in the works since winter term. They will have two chances to perform in the Bucktown Center for the Arts at 6:35 p.m., 8 p.m. with a solo by senior Jmaw Moses at 10:05 p.m. between other featured dance acts.
Sophomore and Dance Ensemble student Angela McNeal sees this weekend’s performances as an opportunity to prepare for the full show later this month.
“[DE] is a very vigorous course … building quality and learning what it means to be truly part of a cast,” she said of the experience, which she feels is more intense than performances with Terpsichore Dance Collective. “It’s faster-paced and more of a challenge.”
The full Dance Ensemble show — including works by seniors Kelsey Cullum, Jmaw Moses and Emily Diklich — will be performed in Harbach Theater at 7:30 p.m. May 22-24. The opening act will be the choreography of Vershawn Sanders-Ward who set the piece during the Red Clay dance residency two weeks ago. Sanders-Ward’s piece runs about 12 minutes.
“It’s really intense and has a lot behind it,” McNeal said. “So much has gone into this show.”
Clik here to view.
Members of the Knox Dance Ensemble pose for a photo shoot. (Courtesy of Michelle Orr)
