News and Events
Vassar Repertory Dance Theater offers a showcase performance of works in progress on October 9, 2009.
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—The Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) will present its “First Showings ’09–’10,” of new and reconstructed works in progress on Friday, October 9. The program, free and open to the public, will begin at 7:00pm in Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater of Kenyon Hall. Reservations are recommended, and can be made by emailing dancetix@vassar.edu. For additioanl information, call Department of Dance at (845) 437-7470. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis, and please note that reservations not claimed on the performance evening by 6:45 pm will be forfeited.
The October VRDT performance of ballet and modern dance repertoire will include four faculty and six student pieces, as well as a work by the guest choreographers Patrick Brown and Deirdre Lowry of Solas An Lae. All of the pieces shown in this performance are previews of complete works to be presented during the VRDT’s Final Showings, November 19, 20, and 21.
“It’s very impressive—to be able to present dance of this quality with a company and choreographers of this calibre, in the Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater, a theater of such distinction.” enthused John Meehan, VRDT director and professor of dance at Vassar, when asked about the upcoming First Showings and The Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater. About the VRDT, Meehan noted that: “We try to operate as much as possible as a professional dance company. We take dance very seriously."
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
The works by Dance Department faculty members will include a reprise performance of Abby Saxon’s jazz piece, Rush Hour. Rush Hour, returning to the repertoire by popular demand. Steve Rooks has created a dramatic piece set to music by Vassar College Adjunct Artist and Resident Composer ’09-‘10, Howard Kilik. The title of Kathy Wildberger’s new work, which is created around the theme of social justice. John Meehan, a veteran of dance performance and choreography with over 39 years of professional experience who recently joined the dance faculty at Vassar and is the director of VRDT, has choreographed a work for ballet, Mozart Variations.
Closing the program will be a work featuring all the VRDT company members choreographed by special guests Patrick Brown, who also is a professional aesthetic designer, musician, artist, photographer and filmmaker, and Deirdre Lowry, artistic director and founder of Solas An Lae (Gaelic for "Light Of Day"), an Irish Dance company based in Rhinebeck, New York. Solas An Lae is committed to breaking free from the status quo of contemporary Irish dance by redefining the movement, imagery, and sound of the medium.
The student choreographers represented in the programs will include: Joey Army, Caitlyn Lamdin, Max Hershenow, Nicole Krenitsky, Dan Ming, Stephen Xue, and Alex Rodabaugh.
ABOUT VRDT DIRECTOR JOHN MEEHAN
John Meehan was appointed a Principal Dancer at the Australian Ballet (1974) and the American Ballet Theater (1977); appeared frequently as a guest artist at the New York City Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, and toured with Stars of World Ballet. His has choreographed ballets for The Australian Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Washington Ballet, Metropolitan Opera Company, and Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Meehan was also the artistic director of Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet (1990–93), The American Ballet Theatre Studio Company (1997–2006), and the Hong Kong Ballet (2006–2009). Before taking his current position at Vassar, in 2005 – 06 he was a visiting professor of dance at the college.
ABOUT THE VASSAR REPERTORY DANCE THEATRE
The Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre is the resident company of the Vassar College Department of Dance. Since 1983, VRDT has provided Vassar dance students with an opportunity to perform significant dance works of the classic ballet and modern repertoire, as well as original works by faculty, student, and visiting artists in the dance field.
ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF DANCE
The Department of Dance offers a non-major, elective course of study at Vassar. The faculty consists of three full-time (Jeanne Periolat Czula, John Meehan, Stephen Rooks) and two part-time teachers (Abby Saxon, Katherine Wildberger). Dance’s Resident Lighting Designer, David Ferri, lights all dance department productions. There are three Adjunct Artists who serve as accompanists and who compose, direct, and sometimes perform with the student company, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre, which is directed by John Meehan.
FALL DANCE EVENTS
Following the VRDT’s First Showings, the Department of Dance will offer several other public events this fall at The Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater in Kenyon Hall including: the lecture by Balanchine ballerina, Merrill Ashley (10/13, 8:30pm); a performance by the Dance Theater of Harlem Ensemble (11/8, 3:00pm); and the VRDT performance Final Showings ’09–’10 (11/19-21, 8pm). Additional details will be announced. For advance reservations for the performances, please email dancetix@vassar.edu.
Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact Campus Activities Office at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available. Directions to the Vassar Campus are available online at www.vassar.edu/directions.
Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.
Posted by College Relations Thursday, October 1, 2009
About the Arts
Powerhouse Theater
The Powerhouse Theater is a collaboration between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College. It is dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of new works for theater and film. During an intense eight-week summer residency on the Vassar campus, up to twenty different projects are publicly presented, typically engaging more than 200 professional artists and theater students. Plays, musicals, and screenplays are presented in a variety of forms: readings, workshops, and fully staged productions. Since the first Powerhouse Theater season in 1985, New York Stage and Film and Vassar have served more than 2,000 artists and over 175,000 audience members through the development and production of artistically exceptional and affordably priced performances.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Located just inside Vassar's Main Gate, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center houses the college's permanent collection, over 18,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and glass and ceramic wares, charting the history of art from antiquity to the present. The Permanent Collection Galleries feature 350 works, ranging from the sculpted Head of Viceroy Merymose from His Outer Sarcophagus (Egyptian, c 1375 BCE) in the Antiquities Gallery to Marsden Hartley's oil on canvas Indian Composition (1914-15) in the Twentieth Century Gallery. For information on current and upcoming special exhibitions, self-guided and curriculum-based tours, and group visits, please visit the website. The art center is open to the public, and admission is free.
James W. Palmer Gallery
Located in the College Center in Main Building, the James W. Palmer III '90 Gallery presents eight shows annually, including exhibitions by renowned artists and photographers, studio art faculty and students, and local arts organizations. Recent highlights included Andrea Baldeck’s black-and-white photo exhibit, Touching the Mekong: A Southeast Asian Sojourn, organized by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; the Vassar Haiti Project’s annual exhibition and auction of imported arts and handcrafts; and Design Inside, showcasing the work of Vassar’s College Relations design team. All exhibitions are free and open to the public. For information on upcoming exhibitions, visit the website or call (845) 437-5370.
Music Department
Located in the Belle Skinner Hall of Music, the Martel Recital Hall is wonderfully suited, both acoustically and aesthetically, to music performance. With seating for 500, the Martel is home to the Vassar College Orchestra, Choir, Women's Chorus, Madrigal Singers, and numerous chamber groups and ensembles. The Martel concert schedule routinely includes distinguished guest artists, faculty recitals, senior recitals, and special musical events, such as last year's series of organ recitals celebrating the installation and dedication of the college's superb pipe organ, designed by masterbuilder Paul Fritts. For information on upcoming concerts and events (which are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted), please visit the website.
Dance Department
The Department of Dance sponsors several public performances each year. Among those, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) has a series of Works in Progress showings in the fall, a winter Modfest performance in conjunction with the The Department of Music, winter galas at the 1869 Bardavon Opera House, and two All Parents Weekend performances in the spring. The department's Master Class program annually invites at least one ballet and one modern expert to campus in addition to two people in other areas of dance. Public performances and lectures are often associated with these renowned visitors. Guest artists in the past have included: Irina Kolpokova, Arthur Mitchell, Helene Alexopoulos, Gregory Hines, Anna Kisselgoff, Donald Byrd, Edward Villella, Ronald K. Brown, Irene Dowd, Allegra Kent, Gelsey Kirkland, Pilobolus w/Adam Battlestein, Suzanne Farrell, Mummenschantz, Eldar Aliev, Deborah Jowitt, Bill T. Jones, Pascal Rioult, Clinton Luckett of ABT, Bill Irwin, and Donald McKayle. Many of the department's dance performances are in the Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater, located in Kenyon Hall.
Naquan Earp '09 and Alix Spyropoulos '11 in Correlazionne by Miriam Mahdaviani
© Vassar College/ Ari Nieditz '08
Press Contact
Emily Darrow
Media Relations Associate
(845) 437-7690
emdarrow@vassar.edu