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New Works Dance Concert 2017

Nov 9 7:30 pm

Nov 10 7:30 pm

Nov 11 2:00 pm

470 E. Lockwood Ave. Stage III / Free Admission/Donations Accepted

Webster University

Webster Groves, MO

webster.edu/dance / (314)-968-7128 / dance@webster.edu

Information

New Works Dance Concert features the creative work of Webster Dance Faculty and Alumni and is performed by Webster Dance students. Choreographers include faculty Betsy Brandt, Jan Cosby, Maggi Dueker, Dawn Karlovsky, Monica Newsam and alumni Jacob Henss and Aquila Rosewind. Performances are Thu Nov 9 at 7:30 pm, Fri Nov 10 at 7:30 pm, and Sat Nov 11 at 2:00 pm at Stage III on the campus of Webster University. Please note: this performance contains adult content and is recommended for mature audiences only. (Photo by Gerry Love)

Choreographers & Works

Betsy Brandt

Complexity is an idea that we usually associate with manic speed and effervescent energy. In To Thicken, Brandt and the dancers are exploring densely complex movement patterns from a different perspective – one of melancholy and tension. The resulting duet is simultaneously unreadable and intriguing. Who are these people, what are they trying to do, why is it so hard, and what is at stake?

Brandt is an interdisciplinary dance artist, teacher, and dramaturg. She currently holds faculty appointments at Webster and Lindenwood Universities, teaching courses in history, composition, and technique. Her dramaturgical work includes collaborations with Kate Corby, Sara Hook, Paul Matteson, Jennifer Monson, Elizabeth Johnson, and Tere O’Connor. Her scholarship has been presented at the Congress on Research in Dance, the Lorado Taft Lectureship Series, and the inaugural Dance Writing Lab at the National Center for Choreography. Brandt serves on the Board of Directors for Page 2 of 2 Center for Choreography. Brandt serves on the Board of Directors for Leverage Dance Theater and the Artist Advisory Board for The Luminary. She earned her MFA in dance from University of Illinois: Urbana Champaign.

Jan Cosby

Jan Cosby's contribution to the concert is a quiet and introspective tap piece entitled Idyll that is set to one of Bix Beiderbecke's piano compositions, "In The Dark".

Jan Feager Cosby has been teaching tap at Webster University since 1990. Formerly on faculty at Washington University, Ballet Conservatory of St. Louis and Day Spring School of the Arts, she has also taught tap technique and improvisation for the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, St. Louis Tap Festival, the St. Louis Dance Festival, Missouri Arts Council and the Arts and Education Council of St. Louis. She was founder and Artistic Director of Tapsichore, a contemporary concert tap company that invited collaborations with both classical and jazz composers and musicians. Jan was one of eleven tap artists chosen from an international pool to work with the late tap master Charles, "Honi" Coles at the Colorado Dance Festival's first Tap Creative Residency. She served as Regional Rep for the International Tap Association and was on the Steering Committee for that organization during its early years. Prior to founding Tapsichore, she toured nationally as a performer, teacher, musician and designer for the award-winning Metro Theater Company.

Maggi Dueker

Dueker's Within and Without looks at relationships and how our view of the world and each other is impacted by outside influences. "In observing the way my own children interact with others and are seemingly able to see each situation as it is without preconceptions, I've found myself considering how having more experience and information often seems to result in a more narrowed, uncompromising view."

Maggi Dueker is an adjunct faculty member and the Director of Summer Intensives for Webster's Department of Dance. Her choreography has been performed by the Webster University Dance Ensemble, Convergence (trainee program of the Big Muddy Dance Company) and for the American College Dance Festival, Dancing in the Streets and National Dance Day among others. Page 2 of 2 Maggi received her BFA in Dance from Webster (Summa cum laude). She performed professionally with Giordano Dance Chicago II, Royal Caribbean International, the MUNY and as a freelance performer with Melissa Thodos and Dancers and Chicago Arts Project. In addition to teaching at Webster, Maggi currently teaches for the Big Muddy Dance Company and at Renee Johnson's Dance Studio. She has previously taught at Northwestern University, Giordano Dance Center and various studios throughout St. Louis and Chicago. For her work at Webster, Maggi has been nominated for the Kemper Excellence in Teaching Award.

Jacob Henss

Jacob Henss work is titled: 👠👁👙💄👖👔💋🍓

Jacob Henss is from the town of Trenton, Illinois and began his dance training at McKendree University, and completed his training after transferring to Webster University. Jacob has produced, directed, and performed in the student choreography showcase, Creation's Concert his entire college career. In addition, he has performed in BFA Concerts, American College Dance Association Regional Conferences, and various singular collective performances throughout the St. Louis area. In 2016, Jacob was awarded the “Emerging Choreographer Award” from Webster University, and his choreography was chosen to perform at the ACDA Central Conference in 2017 where it was showcased in the Gala performance. Jacob received a BA in Dance, with a choreographic emphasis, and a BA in Music from Webster University. After producing his own evening-length work, “The Other Sides”, Jacob now is the production manager for ANNONYArts at Satori while also being a company member for Madco2. Since then, Jacob has choreographed for CommUNITY Arts Festival and various studios in the St. Louis area.

Dawn Karlovsky

Dawn is a prolific choreographer whose thought provoking, athletic, and emotionally candid dances have been commissioned and presented by universities, modern dance companies and theatre companies both regionally and nationally. Ms. Karlovsky is the founder and artistic director of Karlovsky & Company Dance, a contemporary modern dance company dedicated to exploring and nurturing the art of dance with innovative choreography that celebrates the human experience.

Dawn's recent work focuses on developing dance for the camera. Her video, Closer, created in collaboration with New York-based choreographer, Megan Nicely, was presented at the American College Dance Festival – ScreenDance Festival in March 2011.

Dawn's choreography has been commissioned and presented by Webster University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL), University of Minnesota–Duluth, University of Utah, American College Dance Festival (ACDFA), Dance St. Louis, Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), Christopher Watson Dance Co. (Minneapolis), Ressl Dance!, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, That Uppity Theater, and others. Dawn Karlovsky came to St. Louis in 1998 after dancing and touring with companies in San Francisco, Louisville, and Chicago including Afterimages Repertory Dance, California Contemporary Dance, and GASH/VOIGT Dance Theatre here in St. Louis, and in addition, performing with many independent artists including contact improvisation works with Andrew Harwood, David Marchant, Liz Claire, and Angela Culbertson, project collaborations with Mary Ann Rund, and performing Isadora Duncan repertoire under the direction of Dr. Alice Bloch.

Locally, her choreography has been presented in festivals including Spring to Dance, St. Lou Fringe Festival, Dancing in the Street, St. Louis Dance Festival, and Contemporary Moves hosted by Dance St. Louis. Full evening concert programs by Karlovsky & Company Dance are presented annually.

Karlovsky holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Utah and a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Northern Illinois University. Dawn Karlovsky is a faculty member of the Performing Arts Department at Washington University and the Department of Dance at Webster University in St. Louis, dance faculty at COCA, and a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique.

Monica Newsam

Newsam's Anayansi is an aerial dance solo setup on silks that wishes to express the struggles of a woman between two very different cultures and how she feels trapped between these two worlds while constantly trying to be authentically part of both. Anayansi sways on her silks between the two realities and slowly, she removes all the things that keeps her from finding herself. As the silks stop swaying, she is able to see the path which leads her to her own essence.

Monica Newsam, President of NEWSAM AERIAL DANCE, was born in Panama. Her discovery of a passion for movement and dance at age five marked the beginning of a life-long journey to define her singular artistic vision. Monica’s internationally acclaimed body of work in dance and choreography stretches across four continents. She has performed in France, Italy, India, Ecuador, El Salvador, Cuba, the Bahamas and the United States. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National School of Dance and Folklore in Havana. Monica continued her exploration of international movement styles in India. She received a Post Graduate Diploma in Indian Classical Dance at Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra and Yoga at the Sivananda Yoga Center of Kerala. Returning home again, Monica joined the faculty at the University of Panama as a professor of dance. Inspired by her desire to take dance into the local community, Monica founded Gramo Danse Company, the first aerial dance company in Panama. In her continuing relationship with Gramo Danse as performer and contributing choreographer, Monica is fulfilling her dream of educating children about the power of dance. Monica received a master’s degree in education from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. She began exploring aerial circus techniques which lent new perspectives to her artistic work. Currently, Monica teaches aerial dance at Webster University in St. Louis, where she also choreographs for its Dance Ensembles. Monica works with the St. Louis non-profit consortium ANNONYArts where she collaborates with artist Tom Brady. Throughout her extensive creative output, Monica seeks to expand global awareness of aerial dance as an exciting, expressive movement discipline. Her most recent projects include the joint development with Graciela of a university-level aerial dance curriculum. Monica first introduced this curriculum at Xielo/Gramo Danse in Panama, and is expanding it with her students at Webster University.

Holly Aquila Rosewind

Alumna Holly Aquila Rosewind shares an interpretation of her visual and sensorial experiences from observations of nature. She refers to the work as “a pull into being, a call to life, and the passings along the way. Each moment is a giving and receiving, a shaping and a being shaped, a call and a response. This dance is a sacred movement for one, and for the whole. We are but one great body and this is simply, A Moment.”

Holly Aquila Rosewind (Schulte) comes from a very small, tiny place. She is a St. Louis native and a 2004 graduate of Webster University with a B.A. in Dance. She has performed with The Slaughter Project, REVolutions Dance, and most recently for Staci Carlson in the Global Water Project. Aquila’s movement style formed through her training with Gary Hubler, Beckah Reed, Jan Cosby, Dana Lewis, Alton Wasson, Daphne Lowell, Cecil Slaughter, Diadie Bathily, Sara Burke, Michele Larson, Ruth Alpert, Merry Lynn Morris, Karin Stephan, Roger McKeever, Danny Arguetty, Larissa Carlson, and Alice Bloch. Aquila has been deeply influenced by her teachers in meditative practices including Christian Gohl, Patty Christy, Rosan Osamu Yoshida, and Denise Davis O’Dunn. Aquila loves working with all people in various environments which have included hospitals, detention centers, schools, parks, and dance studios. She spends her time studying history, culture, poetry, earth sciences, philosophy and systems theory. She has spent the past few years raising her two children and creating learning pathways using movement. In August this year, Aquila attended The Isadora Duncan International Symposium and is thankful for the work presented most specially by Fabienne Courmont and Dr. Selcuk Goldere. Currently living in Webster Groves, Aquila has a movement studio in her home that provides small group art & dance classes for people with Down syndrome. She is the Department Assistant at Webster University’s Department of Dance and is delighted to have the opportunity to participate in the New Works Concert as a choreographer. Aquila has a deep curiosity that is quite insatiable. She travels the world, and when she can’t she studies it. Her path has taken her through and now she is here.

Credits:

Gerry Love

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