VanDance: An Evening of Solo Works with Ann Van Kuren & Friends

VanDance Inc., State College’s professional contemporary dance company, welcomes the fall season with an intimate performance, VanDance: An Evening of Solo Works with Ann Van Kuren & Friends. If you haven’t been to a dance performance by VanDance in a while, we think you will enjoy this salon style event at Tempest Studios, in downtown State College. The two performances, on August 25^th at 7:30pm and August 27^th at 4pm, feature six short dance pieces enhanced with live flute and guitar music, theatrical performance, and film scenes from Acadia National Park. Seating will be limited in this intimate performance space. Advance tickets are $15, available at https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/75926. Tickets may also be purchased at the door for $20 while available. This concert features world and local premieres of dance theatre works by Beth Corning of Corningworks, based in Pittsburgh, and by Ann Van Kuren, VanDance artistic director, including collaborations with the musicians of Herrera-Register Duo. This event also features the premiere screening of the dance film, “Driftwood Spirit.” Friends who are performing and contributing include Elaine Meder-Wilgus, Cynthia Mazzant, dancers Tina Konrath and Aurora White, and the Herrera-Register Duo. A newly acquired piece created by choreographer Beth Corning, “The Laden Skirt,” is a solo section excerpted from an evening-length work entitled “Six A Breast,” which explores the absurd life of women, originally premiered in 2018 in Pittsburgh. Live music performed by Herrera-Register Duo features “Voces lejanas de adentro” (Distant Voices from Within), an original three-movement composition created by Cathy Herrera and Brent Register. The third movement, inspired by traditional Spanish flamenco, was premiered in Merida, Mexico in 2016. Later, two additional movements, both inspired by Argentinian dance and culture, were composed to create a suite of connected ideas. The complete suite was premiered in Quito, Ecuador. The short dance film “Driftwood Spirit” was choreographed based on Van Kuren’s experience as an artist-in-residence at Acadia National Park in Maine in 2019-2021. The piece includes poetry by Molly Spotted Elk, read by actress Cynthia Mazzant, and music by Claude Debussy and Rachel Panitch, who was a composer-in-residence at Acadia in 2018. The program also includes the works “Padam, Padam/Remember Your Loves,” “So Foul and Fair a Day,” and “Vasija de barro.”