2017 Spring Dance Concert

DanceUSF presents the 2017 Spring Dance Concert.

April 12 – April 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Sat, April 15 at 3 p.m.
Theatre 1, USF Campus

The Spring Dance Concert promises to be an electrifying evening of dance with a work by guest artist Kara Davis and work by our talented faculty, including a piece by DanceUSF faculty members Paula Nuñez and Andee Scott inspired by the art and life of Frida Kahlo.

Lighting Design: Anthony Vito

ACTIONS TO RELATE TO ONESELF
Choreographer: Erin Cardinal
Costume Design: Terri Funaro
Inspired by the work of American sculptor Richard Serra and his list of 84 verbs and 24 possible contexts.

Two dancers are lifted separately in the air, supported by other dancers. One of them is doing an upside-down split.

ONE TUESDAY AFTERNOON...
Choreographer: Kara Davis
The impact a single relationship has on a community ripples through generations.

A male dancer crouches his body as he embraces and holds a female dancer with one arm, his other arm trailing to his side. The female dancer lays in his embrace, her body parallel to the ground. She moves her arms gracefully through the air.

CATALYST (催化剂)
Premiered in Beijing, China in October 2015
Choreographer: Bliss Kohlmyer
Costume Design: Terri Funaro

Two female dancers in the front bend their torso to the right side, their arms raised above their heads. Behind them, one female dancer and one male dancer stand skill, arms resting at their sides. All dancers are wearing white tops, purple-gray pants, and bright colorful socks.

FRIDA
Choreographers: Paula Nuñez, Andee Scott
Costume Design: Marilyn Gaspardo Bertch
Mask Design: Jennifer Bajana, Sarah York

Frida Kahlo constructed her life and her works from images pulled from the authentic fragments of her memories, in a disjointed and fractured way. She reflects her triumphant and tortured existence filled with poliomyelitis, abortions, and surgeries, as well as her revolutionary political ventures and love affairs with Diego Rivera, Leon Trotsky and others, both male and female. She lives on through her work, which emphasized an authentic deep passion for living and liberty; only death breaks the chaotic torrent of the images of her memories. Nuñez and Scott used the following paintings as inspiration for the work: Still Life, Benediction and Dream, The Wounded Table, The Broken Column, The Two Fridas, Frida And Diego, Girl With Death Mask, The Wounded Deer.

Female dancers all wearing black spaghetti strap tank tops hold white decorated masks over their faces. All wear brightly colored flowers at the front of their heads.

One female dancer stretches her arm straight behind her, she tilts her head back and closes her eyes. Another dancer seems to guide her, their hands on her hip.

Guest Artist Kara Davis

Kara Davis danced for BalletMet, Atlanta Ballet, Ohio Ballet and Ballet Jörgen before moving to San Francisco 1998. She is a founding member of KUNST-STOFF and Janice Garrett & Dancers. She has performed with the San Francisco Opera as well as in works by Alex Ketley / The Foundry, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Pearl Ubungen Dancers & Musicians, Amy Raymond, Val Caniparoli (ACT), Robert Moses, and Kathleen Hermesdorf. She has received numerous Isadora Duncan nominations for her ensemble work and choreography. She co-founded project agora with Bliss Kohlmyer Dowman in 2006; their duet work has been shown at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2016) and Bates Dance Festival (2015). Ms. Davis' own work has been shown at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Kennedy Center (ACDF Nationals), Z Space, ODC Theater, Dance Mission, Headlands Center for The Arts, SF MOMA, Arizona State University, and the Cowell Theater. In 2009 Ms. Davis was an Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts and was mentored by choreographer Alex Ketley in Margaret Jenkins' CHIME residency. She has received commissions from sjDANCEco, Scottsdale Community College, and San Jose State University. She has been a faculty member at Alonzo King's LINES Ballet Pre-Professional & BFA programs since 2005 where she choreographed over 20 works. She received her MFA in Dance from Hollins University in 2013 and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Mills College.