Events & Calendars Faculty Dance Concert

The Amherst College Theater and Dance Department is proud to present a concert of faculty dance, music and video collaborations to celebrate the beginning of a new academic year. The program will feature works by Amherst theater and dance faculty members Wendy Woodson and Paul Matteson in collaboration with Music Department faculty member Eric Sawyer and a solo dance by guest artist teacher Leslie Frye Maietta.

Amherst College choreographer and video artist Woodson will present "Companion Piece," created in collaboration with dance artists Matteson and Jennifer Nugent (formerly of the Bill T. Jones Dance Company), that explores an ever-shifting relationship, in and out of alignment. In addition, the program will include "Wayfarer," a new dance video created by Woodson in collaboration with Israeli choreographer Idan Cohen and dancer Noa Shiloh, shot on location at the Wisteriahurst Museum.

"Galaxies" is a collaboration featuring Matteson’s dance, Sawyer’s music and a quartet of four gifted student string players. The work suggests, both visually and aurally, an expansion from a confined space to one of large distances, followed by a mirroring compression. In the process, a contrast is drawn between cool, elemental space and warmer, subjective human impulses.

"re | Dream With Me," choreographed and performed by guest artist Maietta, explores spiral(s) present within the body as tools for radical transformation, seeing and being seen inside the imagining of a future self while reflecting the histories and stories that bind us to a fixed world.

Admission to the Faculty Dance Concert is free. Seating is open. No reservations are required.

Refreshments will be available after the concert, with an opportunity to meet Five College Dance Department faculty.