{"id":111467,"date":"2022-03-17T22:26:05","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T02:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=111467"},"modified":"2022-03-17T22:27:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T02:27:55","slug":"muhlenbergs-in-motion-dance-concert-showcases-talents-of-acclaimed-choreographers-more-than-70-dancers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=111467","title":{"rendered":"Muhlenberg’s \u2018In Motion\u2019 dance concert showcases talents of acclaimed choreographers, more than 70 dancers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opening March 31, the performance features <\/span><\/i>work by guest artist Fredrick Earl Mosley
\n<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Allentown, Pa. (March 16, 2022) \u2014 The Muhlenberg College dance program will present seven original works by seven celebrated choreographers in its \u201cIn Motion\u201d concert, March 31 \u2013 April 2 in the college\u2019s Empie Theatre. The performance includes \u201cRunning Spirits,\u201d a piece by renowned guest artist Fredrick Earl Mosley, this season\u2019s Baker Artist-in-Residence, supported by the Dexter F. & Dorothy H. Baker Foundation.<\/p>\n

An internationally known performer, educator, and choreographer, Mosley is the founder and artistic director of Diversity of Dance. In addition to staging work for \u201cIn Motion,\u201d Mosley spent much of the semester on campus, working on his collaborative project \u201cUnconquered,\u201d which was performed this March and teaching workshops for teenagers in the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Motion\u201d also features works by six Muhlenberg dance faculty: Heidi Cruz-Austin, an alumna of the Pennsylvania Ballet; Karen Dearborn, founder and chair of Muhlenberg\u2019s dance program; Megan Flynn, artistic director of Megan Flynn Dance Company; Natalie Gotter, a former dancer with Tsunami Dance Company; Randall Anthony Smith, a former dancer with Armitage Gone!; and Robyn Watson, tap dance instructor for Broadway’s Shuffle Along. Cruz-Austin and Dearborn serve as the concert\u2019s artistic directors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a co-artistic director, what I\u2019m trying to do is honor the choreographers’ visions,\u201d Cruz-Austin says. \u201cI want to bring their creativity and what they want to present on the stage with their movement to the forefront of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robyn Watson will premiere a new suite titled \u201cMoving Moods,\u201d which follows a journey through the history of tap in four sections, each referencing the dance’s origins and evolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt deals with deconstructing the narrative of what many of us have assumed tap dance is,\u201d Watson says. \u201cThe hope is that the audience will get a kaleidoscopic view of what tap is, and its presentation with and without music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Natalie Gotter is creating a modern piece titled, \u201cI\u2019m Looking for You,\u201d inspired heavily by Stephen Petronio, LaLaLa Human Steps, and other artists exploring gender, physicality, and sexuality in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis piece examines a specific moment of choice,\u201d Gotter says. \u201cThis moment pushes and pulls us, can bring us to safety, bring us to exhaustion, or introduce us to experiences we would never have otherwise known.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heidi Cruz-Austin is creating a new piece in which the aesthetics of classical and contemporary ballet share the stage. She says the work is a reflection of her personal artistic leanings, including her love for the musical compositions of Chopin. The piece will be accompanied live on piano by musician Holly Roadfeldt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of contradiction within the piece,\u201d Cruz-Austin says. \u201cBut to me the contradictions just make sense. I keep telling myself, \u2018You don\u2019t always have to do things the way they\u2019ve been done.\u2019 I\u2019m following my instincts and carving my own path in this traditional ballet aesthetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Megan Flynn is creating an original work in collaboration with a cast of 14 dancers, inspired by her summer 2021 research as a choreographer-in-residence at the ImPulsTanz: Vienna International Dance Festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am delighted to be working with guest lighting designer Leslie Lura-Smith,\u201d Flynn says. \u201cPortable lighting fixtures are incorporated into the choreography and serve to illuminate the themes of embodied memory, construction of personal narrative, and how we choose to reveal different parts of Self.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karen Dearborn has created a dynamic ballet piece that is set on 11 dancers. Titled \u201cEmbers,\u201d the piece incorporates a dynamic duet performance as well as unified ensemble movement.<\/p>\n

Randall Anthony Smith is creating a work titled \u201cR.A.I.N.B.O.W.\u201d The piece is a celebration of human experiences and the sharing of love, joy and understanding through our differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work has challenged me to constantly be aware of \u2018How do I want to truly Live and be with others like and unlike me?\u2019\u201d Smith says. \u201cFor me, I would rather cultivate happiness. We can do beautiful things when we work together instead of against one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Motion\u201d runs March 31 – April 2 in the Empie Theatre, in the Baker Center for the Arts, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown.<\/b><\/p>\n

Performances are Thursday and Friday, March 31 \u2013 April 1, at 8 p.m.; and Saturday, April 2, at 2 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for patrons 17 and under; and $8 for students, faculty, and staff of all LVAIC colleges.<\/p>\n

Tickets and information are available at 484-664-3333 or\u00a0muhlenberg.edu\/seeashow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Information Provided By:
\nScott Snyder
\nMarketing Manager
\nMuhlenberg College Department of Theatre & Dance<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opening March 31, the performance features work by guest artist Fredrick Earl Mosley Allentown, Pa. (March 16, 2022) \u2014 The Muhlenberg College dance program will present seven original works by … Continue reading Muhlenberg’s \u2018In Motion\u2019 dance concert showcases talents of acclaimed choreographers, more than 70 dancers<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/in-motion-2022.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/111468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}