Dance Company Concert Celebrates National Dance Week

SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury University Dance Company's annual Spring Concert in celebration of National Dance Week is Thursday-Saturday, April 24-26, at 8 p.m. in Holloway Hall Auditorium. The program features Flamenco dancer Shahram Tehranian, classical guitarist Michael Perez and five works by faculty, student and guest artist choreographers.

Perez and Tehranian return to Salisbury University to present the drama and passion of Flamenco, the quintessential manifestation of Spanish folk music and dance. The programs for Thursday, Friday and Saturday will feature different Flamenco suites.

Artistic director Victoria Hutchinson premieres "Rhapsodic Dialogue," an abstract lyric modern dance costumed by senior Priscilla Magalee. Johann Sebastian Bach's unaccompanied "Cello Suites" as played by Mstislav Rostropovich provide the musical inspiration for the dance. In the choreography, light rhythmic patterns contrast with fiery rhythms that emerge, accumulate and decline in space.

The featured student work, "An Angel's Requiem" by senior Erin Fair Rhoades, is the winner of the Fall Dance Showcase adjudication. Set to the music of the Pat McGee Band, this lyric dance is dedicated to those who have left this earth too soon.

The one-hour program includes three guest choreographer works: "Haiku," by Doug Hamby, "Shaken Not Stirred" by Linda Hallman-Darr and "Triple Threat" by Kathryn Ferguson. Ferguson, a 2002 graduate of Salisbury University and former member of the SU Dance Company, is a freelance choreographer who coaches the Urbana High School Dance Team in Frederick, MD.

Tickets for the performance are $8 for adults and $6 for senior citizens, teen-agers and alumni. Children under 12 and SU ID holders are admitted free. Tickets are available at the door 30 minutes before curtain. Fundraising benefits Operation Uplink's efforts to purchase telephone calling cards for overseas troops.

For more information call 410-548-4183 or visit the Web at www.salisbury.edu/schools/seidel/dance.