Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Dance at Illinois presents February Dance 2016

Dance at Illinois will present February Dance 2016 at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 4, 5 and 6 at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana.

Dance at Illinois will premiere a new work from guest artist and 2014 National Medal of Arts recipient Ping Chong. His monthlong residency with the department of dance was made possible by a grant from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. Vested in social justice and working fluidly between theater and dance, Chong has been a pioneer in the innovative use of theater media.

Fresh back from New York seasons, rave reviews and critical acclaim at college dance festivals, resident artists C. Kemal Nance, Endalyn Taylor and Abigail Zbikowski will bring a range of aesthetic voices to the stage.

Nance, a lecturer, presents “hmu” or “Hit Me Up!” which explores the unexpressed feelings that surface when the exchange of yellow-faced images, initials, and abbreviated (misspelled) words replaces messy, human conversation.

Sophia Levine, a Master of Fine Arts candidate, showcases her emerging thoughts about experimental performance, imagination, ritual and relationship with a large group work entitled “does matter.”

Taylor, a professor of dance, and Nance collaborate in a new work, featuring colleague and fellow professor Cynthia Oliver. “Chalk Lines” represents a retrospective lamentation of a perennial and current issue. With an “old-school jam,” they move and groove to rhythms of resistance while asking, “What must the African-American community do to transform a racist America that is ‘hell bent’ on killing us?”

Zbikowski, a professor of dance, creates a solo about challenging systems of knowing and making statements that you cannot take back, both in our bodies and out in the world. Master of Fine Arts in dance candidate Jessie Young mines her body’s history and deeply conditioned knowledge to re-examine ways of understanding its possibilities.

In response to the unjust killing of Trayvon Martin and the seemingly perpetual killings of black men and boys, Ping Chong’s “Baldwin/NOW” is an interdisciplinary exploration of the legacy and psyche behind this history of violence in America. Utilizing a spoken text distilled from a 1968 speech by writer James Baldwin, sound and projections by M. Anthony Reimer/Yu-Yun Hsieh and John Boesche, respectively, and a performance score created by Ping Chong in collaboration with the ensemble, “Baldwin/NOW” engages the audience in an interdisciplinary interrogation of race and violence in America.

Post-show discussions with panelists will follow each performance.

Tickets are available at the Krannert Center Box Office at 217-333-6280 or online at krannertcenter.com.

Read Next

Life sciences Photo of Michael Ward standing in tall grass on a riverbank.

How are migrating wild birds affected by H5N1 infection in the U.S.?

Each spring, roughly 3.5 billion wild birds migrate from their warm winter havens to their breeding grounds across North America, eating insects, distributing plant seeds and providing a variety of other ecosystem services to stopping sites along the way. Some also carry diseases like avian influenza, a worry for agricultural, environmental and public health authorities. […]

Announcements Marcelo Garcia, professor of civil and environmental engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering.

Illinois faculty member elected to National Academy of Engineering

Champaign, Ill. — Marcelo Garcia, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Social sciences Male and female student embracing on the quad with flowering redbud tree and the ACES library in the background. Photo by Michelle Hassel

Dating is not broken, but the trajectories of relationships have changed

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — According to some popular culture writers and online posts by discouraged singles lamenting their inability to find romantic partners, dating is “broken,” fractured by the social isolation created by technology, pandemic lockdowns and potential partners’ unrealistic expectations. Yet two studies of college students conducted a decade apart found that their ideas about […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010