The Middlebury College Department of Theatre and Dance Winter/Spring 2012 Dance Calendar Winter Term Events

January 18 Yoga Philosophy Wednesday 2:00-4:00 p.m. FREE Mahaney Center Room 109 Lecture and discussion with Russell Comstock, Metta Yoga. Come dressed to move as well as to listen.

January 25 Food and You: Stories To Live By Wednesday 7:00 p.m. FREE The Orchard (Room 103), The Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest Workshop and discussion with Andrea Olsen and Sabina Holloway.

January 27-28 PUSH: Moving History Forward Friday, Saturday The Dance Company of Middlebury 2011-2012 season 8:00 p.m. Tickets: $12/10/6 Mahaney Center Dance Theatre The Dance Company of Middlebury explores the roots of American dance forms: Swing, Contact Improvisation, Hip Hop and Modern Dance. Guest artists Teena Marie Custer and Nicholas Leichter and Artist in Residence Tiffany Rhynard contribute pieces to the concert. Davis Anderson ’13, Sarah Chapin ’12, Jeremy Cline ’11.5, Cameron McKinney ’14, James Moore ’12, Jill Moshman ’14, Rachel Nuñez ’14, Hannah Pierce ’13, and Alexandra Vasquez ’12 comprise the company.

Come see how this current generation translates historic forms into a new vision of dance for the 21st century. Sponsored by the Dance Program and the Committee on the Arts. Post-performance discussion and reception following Friday’s performance. Spring Events

March 1 Screening of “Little House in the Big House” Thursday 7:00 p.m. FREE Axinn Center Room 232 Join us for a screening of Little House in the Big House, a documentary produced by Artist in Residence Tiffany Rhynard and her sister, Kim Brittenham with thier production company Sisters Unite. Little House in the Big House takes you inside the gates of the Vermont state women’s prison where, over a period of a year, inmates in a trades program build a modular home from start to finish. Under the instruction of Vermont Works for Women, these women find the tools necessary to build a house and construct a sustainable future. Four women tell their stories as they face difficult challenges while incarcerated and as they re-enter society. Vermont songwriters and performers Anaïs Mitchell and Steph Pappas contribute to the soundtrack. Co-sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies program, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and the History of Art and Architecture. www.littlehousebighouse.com

March 6-10 Rothrock Residency featuring Cellist Described as a “maverick cellist,” David Darling mixes genres including jazz, pop, rock, country, and with intellectual curiosity and playful innovation. A member of the Consort from l970- 1987, Darling’s prolific recording career includes playing music with whales, wolves, and in the depths of the Grand Canyon as well as producing River Notes with nature writer Barry Lopez and Refuge with Terry Tempest Williams. His 2009 CD Prayer for Compassion received a Grammy for best New Age album. David’s numerous collaborations include dance (Pilobolus) and film (Wim Wenders), and reflect his belief in the social and spiritual power of musical expression.This student-initiated residency is sponsored by the Rothrock Family Fund for Experiential Learning in the Performing Arts—established in 2011, to support opportunities that broaden the scope of Middlebury students’ experience in the performing arts—with support from the Performing Arts Series and Dance Program. Rehearsals and classes will occur throughout the week; check the dance calendar for a full schedule: go/dance. All events are FREE. Tuesday, March 6 5:00-6:30 p.m. Mahaney Center Dance Theatre Music, Meditation, and Yoga with Russell Comstock and David Darling, co-sponsored with the Yoga Club.

Wednesday, March 7 12:30-1:20 p.m. Mahaney Center Dance Theatre Music, Meditation, and Yoga with Andrea Olsen and David Darling, co-sponsored with the Yoga Club.

4:30-6:00 p.m. Mahaney Center Concert Hall Open music jam with students, faculty, and staff. Bring your instrument. Thursday, March 8 12:30-1:15 p.m. The Orchard (Room 103), The Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest “Music and the Environment” presented as part of the Spring 2012 Woodin Environmental Studies Colloquium Series. David will play and share prerecorded examples of music created with the Paul Winter Consort.

7:30-9:00 p.m. Mahaney Center Dance Theatre David Darling in Concert Join us for an intimate evening with David. Open seating, and no tickets required, so come early and enjoy!

March 15 Women Who Write about Dance: A Panel Discussion with Toni Bentley, Deborah Jowitt, and Kathryn Levy Thursday 4:30-6:00 p.m. FREE Harmon Periodical Reading Room Davis Family Library The Abernethy Series presents a panel of writers who have focused their distinguished work on the elusive art of dance. Ranging from poetry to female sensuality to perceptive dance criticism and biography, Kathryn Levy, Toni Bentley, and Deborah Jowitt will share their individual perspectives on dance writing as well as engage their col- leagues and audience in compelling discussion. Moderated by Penny Campbell, Dance Program Director and Andrew Wentink, Curator of Special Collections & Archives. Presented by Abernethy Lecture Series and the Dance Program. Winter Term Movement Classes These classes are open to the college community. PE credit, when available, requires attendance at a minimum of eight classes. If you are interested in taking a dance technique and choreography course for academic credit, see listings in Banner. Contact the Dance Office for further information: [email protected], http://go.middlebury.edu/dance, 802.443.5245

January 9 Winter Term Movement classes begin Sponsored by the Dance program, register at the first class: Contemporary Techniques with the Dance Company of Middlebury Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30-10:45 a.m. MCA 110 Capoeira with Jeremy Cline Thursdays 5:30-7:00 p.m. and Sundays 3:00-4:30 p.m., MCA 109 Pilates with Nina Vila Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:30-1:20 p.m., MCA 109 (College community only, fee course, register at go/boxoffice) Ballet with Classical Dance of Middlebury Mondays and Wednesdays 5:30-6:30 p.m. MCA 109 (fee course, register with Student Activities)

Spotlight on Winter Yoga Classes! Yoga for Faculty and Staff with Joanna Colwell January 4-February 8 Wednesdays 11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. MCA 110 (Fee course, register by contacting Ellen McKay, sponsored by the Optimal Health Initiative) Yoga classes open to the college community (mixed level): January 9-31 with Andrea Olsen Mondays 1:30-2:30 p.m. MCA 110 with Russell Comstock Tuesdays 5:00-6:15 p.m. MCA 109 with Jeremy Cline Fridays 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. MCA 109 with Nikhil Ramburn Sundays 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. MCA 109 Sponsored by the Middlebury College Yoga Club and the Dance Program

Spring Dance and Movement classes These classes are open to the college community. PE credit is available with attendance at a minimum of eight classes. Register at the first class. If you are interested in taking a dance technique and choreography course for academic credit, see listings in Banner. Contact the Dance Office for further information: [email protected], http://go/middlebury.edu/dance, 802.443.5245.

These classes start the FIRST week of class, Feb. 13! These classes start the second week of class, Feb. 20! Advanced Beginning Dance (DANC 0260/261) Yoga with Addie Cleveland with Paul Besaw F 12:30-1:20 p.m., MCA 109 TTh 9:30-10:45 a.m., MCA 110 Ballet with Emma Siskin Intermediate/Advanced Dance (DANC 0361) W 4:45-6:15 p.m., MCA 109 with Tiffany Rhynard Pilates with Nina Vila MW 2:45-4:15 p.m., MCA 110 TTh 12:30-1:20 p.m., MCA 109 (College community only, fee course, register at go/boxoffice) RIDDIM with Rachel Nuñez and Cameron McKinney W 6:30-8:00 p.m., MCA 109 Capoeira with Oliver Weisser Su 3:00-4:30 p.m., MCA 109 March 16–17 Abraham in Motion: The Radio Show Friday, Saturday 8:00 p.m. each evening. Tickets: $25/20/6 Mahaney Center Dance Theatre Bessie Award-winning dancer and choreographer Kyle Abraham delves into identity and personal history in The Radio Show. Creating an abstract narrative around the loss of communication, he investigates a community’s reaction to the abrupt discontinuation of a radio station and how the lingering effects of Alzheimer’s disease and aphasia impact a family. He mixes a score with recordings of classic soul and hip-hop with contemporary classical compositions by Ryoji Ikeda and Alva Noto. Sponsored by the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series and the Dance Program.

Residency activities Tuesday, March 15 9:30-10:45 a.m. FREE Mahaney Center Dance Theatre Master class, intermediate technique

12:30-1:20 p.m. FREE Mahaney Center Dance Theatre Lecture demonstration with Kyle Abraham and company members. April 9, 10 Residency with dancer and filmmaker Erika Randall Erika Randall (MFA, The Ohio State University, BA, University of Washington) is an Assistant Professor at the University of . Erika has worked with Sara Hook, David Parker and the Bang Group, Teena Marie Custer, Michelle Ellsworth, Rebecca Nettl-Fiol, the Mark Morris Dance Group and Buglisi/Foreman Dance. In 2004, Erika formed the Columbus Movement Movement (cm2), which was named one of Dance Magazine’s “Top 25 to Watch” (2007). Her film, Leading Ladies (2010), has played 60 festivals worldwide, winning Audience Awards for Best Feature Narrative Film at the Palm Beach Women’s Film Festival and the San Francisco United Film Festival. www.leadingladiesmovie.com Monday, April 9 2:45-4:15 p.m. FREE Mahaney Center Dance Theatre Transferring the three-dimensionality of dance to the two- dimensional format of cinema starts with a keen understanding of movement. In this master class, students will experience movement from both visual and kinetic perspectives as Randall progresses through a rhythmic romp that emphasizes the planes in space, large, sweeping movements, delicious detail, and turning off balance.

Tuesday, April 10 7:00 p.m. FREE Mahaney Center Dance Theatre Join us for a screening of Leading Ladies with Erika Randall who co-wrote, directed, produced and choreographed this feature dance film. The film premiered at the Sonoma International Film Festival in 2010, and has played to sold-out audiences at over 60 festivals world-wide, including: New York’s NewFest, Los Angeles’ Outfest, San Francisco’s Frameline, the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Starz Denver Film Festival, the Cannes Independent Film Festival, and won “Best Feature” at the Palm Beach Women’s Film Festival. Her interest in dance, its relationship to popular culture, and its ability to impact change, is at the heart of all of her research and teaching. Leading Ladies will be distributed by Wolfe Films and is now available on DVD.

April 20, 21 Senior Thesis Concert: Friday, Saturday Sarah Chapin, Alicia Evancho, James Moore, Alexandra Vasquez 8:00 p.m. Tickets: $12/10/6 Mahaney Center Dance Theatre Four dance program seniors present a passionate evening of choreography and performance. Drawing on backgrounds as diverse as sociology and poetry, Portuguese and theatre, they investigate questions of grief, surveillance, the persistence of memory, and more. The concert will transport you from abandoned ballrooms to public parks, from explosive athleticism to delicate reflection, as these four choreographers explore their emerging artistic voices. April 26 The 2012 Ron Rucker Lecture: Robert Swinston, Preserving the Cunningham Legacy Thursday 4:30-6:00 p.m. FREE Harmon Periodicals Reading Room Davis Family Library Discussion of digital preservation of treasured cultural resources rarely extends to the most ephem- eral of the arts—dance—and the preservation of the choreographic legacy of a 20th century icon. The 2012 Ron Rucker Lecture confronts this compelling archival issue in Preserving the Cunningham Legacy, presented by Cunningham Director of Choreography, Robert Swinston. Swinston will discuss how he has coped with this monumental and unprecedented challenge. There continues to be much debate, internal and external, as to whether the plan to preserve Cunningham’s body of work, digitally as well as in performance, will actually work. No company with a singular choreographer has fully solved the riddle of how to preserve its dances once their creator has died. “I’m so consumed by it that it never leaves me,” says Swinston, who has been a Cunningham dancer since 1980 and shouldered much of the burden of running the company in its final days. “How can I prolong it, or what can I do? And what do I have to do?” Sponsored by Friends of the Davis Family Library and the Dance Program.

April 27 Lunch with Robert Swinston Friday 12:30-1:20 FREE Mahaney Center Dance Theatre An opportunity to get to know Robert Swinston, the dancer and former Middlebury College student. Hear him talk about his career and the decisions he made as he moved from Middlebury to Juilliard to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Lunch provided. Co-sponsored by Friends of the Davis Family Library, The Abernethy Lecture Series, and Special Collections.

May 5 Shifting the Frame: Dance for the Camera Screening Saturday 8:00 p.m. Tickets: $12/10/6 Mahaney Center Dance Theatre Shifting the frame from the stage to the screen, spring choreography students investigate the in- tersection of movement and video. Facilitated by Artist in Residence Tiffany Rhynard, the students will present their short movies choreographed specifically for the camera. Come dressed for a Hollywood movie premiere and join us on the red carpet (literally!) for the Middlebury Dance Program’s first dance for the camera screening. Awards will be given for best overall film and audience members will receive prizes for best costume. Dress to the nines!

May 9 Taking Flight Wednesday 4:30 p.m. FREE Mahaney Center Dance Theatre A “lightly produced” showing of dance experiments by the new batch of choreographers emerging from the Advanced Beginning Dance course.

News flash! END of the printed Dance Calendar! This will be the last print calendar that the Dance Program will mail. Our calendar will continue to be available at our Web site: http://go/middlebury.edu/dance and in print at the Mahaney Center. Subscribe to ArtsMail, our weekly email service that delivers arts news to your inbox at go/arts. For tickets and information, call the Mahaney Center Box Office 802.443.6433, or order online at http://go.middlebury.edu/tickets (on campus: go/boxoffice)