{"id":126515,"date":"2024-01-15T15:30:33","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T20:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=126515"},"modified":"2024-01-15T15:30:33","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T20:30:33","slug":"guest-artist-tommie-waheed-evans-headlines-in-motion-dance-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=126515","title":{"rendered":"Guest Artist Tommie-Waheed Evans Headlines ‘In Motion’ Dance Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A choreographic tour-de-force from Muhlenberg\u2019s dance faculty choreographers and guest artist, ‘In Motion’ runs Feb. 8-10.<\/em><\/p>\n

Allentown, Pa. (Jan. 15, 2023) \u2014 The Muhlenberg College Dance Program will present seven world-premiere dance pieces in its annual faculty and guest artist-choreographed concert, “In Motion,”\u00a0Feb. 8-10. A new work by Guggenheim fellow\u00a0Tommie-Waheed Evans<\/strong>, a queer Black dance maker based in Philadelphia, headlines the concert.<\/p>\n

Each year, members of Muhlenberg\u2019s dance faculty present a diverse range of perspectives on dance. Dance faculty member\u00a0Natalie Gotter<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 the concert\u2019s artistic director and one of seven choreographers \u2014 emphasizes the abundant energy which sets this year\u2019s iteration of “In Motion” apart. Gotter says the concert will showcase the largest variety of styles ever seen on the Muhlenberg stage, including tap, contemporary ballet, punk, modern, diasporic dances, and hip-hop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis show is personal, explosive, and emotional,\u201d Gotter says. \u201cIt will give the audience space to feel empathy, to learn something new, and to experience movement through all of their senses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Motion\u201d runs Feb. 8-10 in Muhlenberg\u2019s Empie Theatre, in the Baker Center for the Arts. Showtimes are Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. Tickets are available at\u00a0muhlenberg.edu\/seeashow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The concert will feature a world premiere work by guest artist\u00a0Tommie-Waheed Evans<\/strong>. His piece, \u201ctraces left within,\u201d aims to \u201ctranscend time,\u201d intertwining an urban street style with contemporary dance movement. \u201cMy mission is to create a radically collaborative body of work that speaks to human life,\u201d he says. \u201cThe goal of the movement is to offer a path to liberation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans says he was raised in Los Angeles, \u201camidst racial divide, gang warfare and earthquakes.\u201d His work explores Blackness, spirituality, queerness and liberation. He has performed nationally and internationally as a member of Lula Washington Dance Theater, Complexions Contemporary Ballet and Philadanco, and since 2004, he has created more than 50 original dance works that range widely in scope, length, tone and subject matter. He is currently an artist-in-residence at Philadanco and a faculty member at the University of the Arts, both in Philadelphia \u2014 as is his own company, waheedworks, established in 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re honored to have a brand new work by Tommie choreographed on our students,\u201d Gotter says, \u201cproviding a curated intersection of ballet and Black dance traditions through collaborative work with students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veteran dance faculty member\u00a0Samuel Antonio Reyes<\/strong>\u00a0has created the department\u2019s first faculty-choreographed hip-hop dance piece. His street theater dance work \u201cTHE LEDGE\u201d features both student and faculty performers. \u201cStreet theater presents hip-hop movement that portrays the struggles and the culture of street society,\u201d he says, \u201cfrom the neighborhoods of the less fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artistic director of Sanbrooka Productions, Reyes is a Philadelphia-based hip-hop artist and award-winning choreographer for theater, commercial dance and concert dance. This is his first concert piece at Muhlenberg, but he has contributed choreography to several theater productions, including, most recently “\u2026And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi,” “The Threepenny Opera,” and “Miss You Like Hell.”<\/p>\n

Elizabeth June Bergman<\/strong>\u2019s choreography explores how different communities and performance genres have embodied the rebellious spirit of punk ideology. \u201cDance Punk!\u201d travels in time to the \u201970s and \u201980s subcultures of punk rock, disco, dance punk, and ballet through the early 2000s hipster scene. \u201cThe work presents a vision of some of the many ways that people have \u2018danced punk\u2019 as a way to resist conformity, challenge the status quo, and find joy together,\u201d Bergman says.<\/p>\n

A dancer, interdisciplinary scholar and educator based in Philadelphia, Bergman holds a doctorate degree from Temple University. Her body of creative work includes improvisational performance, choreography for nontraditional sites, and screendance.<\/p>\n

Tap choreographer\u00a0Robyn Watson<\/strong>\u00a0aims to \u201cfind new majestic discoveries within repetition\u201d in her new piece, \u201crinse. repeat.\u201d Through different tempos, time signatures, and rhythmic patterns, the piece examines routine and repetition, and explores methods for uncover innovation through repetition. \u201cHow does routine feel new when it is frequently repeated?\u201d she says. \u201cIs it time? Is it space?\u201d<\/p>\n

A native Philadelphian, Watson has performed with innovators and trailblazers in the world of tapdance, including Dianne Walker, Germaine Ingram, Savion Glover and the late, legendary Mabel Lee. She served as tap instructor for the Broadway production Shuffle Along and was a resident artist at the Painted Bride Art Center, where she began developing The Blackbirds\u2019 Suites, a trilogy of tap dance narratives that address Black women\u2019s identity throughout American history.<\/p>\n

In \u201cNot the Least Afraid,\u201d\u00a0Natalie Gotter<\/strong>\u00a0and her dancers grapple with notions of risk, trust, and energy, in a collaborative, intensely physical modern piece. \u201cWe worked with the physical embodiment of \u2018taking the next step\u2019 and talked about the grief, joy, and the complications of moving on and letting go,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have built relationships, looked to the future, and trusted our intuition to craft this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Philadelphia-based performer, choreographer, filmmaker, educator and researcher, Gotter serves as co-director of Muhlenberg\u2019s Dance Program. She says dance offers her a way of engaging with socialization of the physically gendered body and of questioning human limits \u2014 whether inherent or self-imposed.<\/p>\n

Inspired by the words of revered Black American choreographer Katherine Dunham and the music of Puerto Rican Latin Jazz artist Tito Puente,\u00a0Anito Gavino<\/strong>\u00a0sets out to tell a two-part narrative showing the spiritual connection dance has to roots in many cultures. The work\u2019s title, \u201cThe Alchemy of Bantaba,\u201d refers to an African word referring to a community\u2019s traditional meeting place, often under a large tree.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entirety of the piece is rooted in Indigenous dance rhythms,\u201d Gavino says, \u201caffirming that dance is not a spectacle but a documentation of stories, investigations and emotionalities \u2014 and even a critique to speak on social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Filipinx multidisciplinary movement scholar indigenous to the island of Panay, Philippines, Gavino focuses on Africanist and Indigenous centered dance practices, investigating jazz, Caribbean dances, Indigenous dances and their cross-pollinating intersections.<\/p>\n

Heidi Cruz-Austin<\/strong>\u00a0has created a work titled \u201cGrief, it brings the need, the naked freeze,\u201d which explores what remains after love is lost. \u201cI was interested in digging into what happens internally when we navigate the aftermath of love,\u201d Cruz-Austin says. \u201cEach section of the piece represents a different stage of grief or loss: denial, anger, depression, and acceptance.\u201d<\/p>\n

A ballet performer and choreographer, Cruz-Austin has danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet, Ballet X, and other prominent dance companies. Co-director of the Trenton-based contemporary ballet company DanceSpora, Cruz-Austin serves as co-director of Muhlenberg\u2019s Dance Program.<\/p>\n

Gotter says she looks forward to sharing the concert\u2019s diverse range of perspectives with an audience. \u201cAll of the pieces are as unique as the choreographers,\u201d she says, \u201chighlighting the vast choreographic talent of our dance faculty members and the professionalism of our student dancers as they take on multiple ways of moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

“In Motion” runs Feb. 8-10 in the Empie Theatre, Baker Center for the Arts, Muhlenberg College. Performances are Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for patrons 18 and under, and $8 for students, faculty, and staff of all LVAIC colleges. Tickets and information are available at 484-664-3333 or\u00a0muhlenberg.edu\/seeashow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance Department
\n<\/strong>Muhlenberg offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in theatre and dance. The Princeton Review routinely Muhlenberg\u2019s theatre program in the top twelve in the nation \u2014 including a No. 2 ranking in 2023 \u2014 and Fiske Guide to Colleges lists both the theatre and dance programs among the top small college programs in the United States. Muhlenberg is one of only eight colleges to be listed in Fiske for both theatre and dance.
\n<\/em>
\nAbout Muhlenberg College
\n<\/strong>Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg is a highly selective, private liberal arts college offering baccalaureate and graduate programs. With an enrollment of nearly 2,000 students, Muhlenberg College is dedicated to shaping creative, compassionate, collaborative leaders through rigorous academic programs in the arts, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences; selected preprofessional programs, including accounting, business, education and public health; and progressive workforce-focused post-baccalaureate certificates and master\u2019s degrees. Located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, approximately 90 miles west of New York City, Muhlenberg is a member of the Centennial Conference, competing in 23 varsity sports. Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/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":"

\u00a0 A choreographic tour-de-force from Muhlenberg\u2019s dance faculty choreographers and guest artist, ‘In Motion’ runs Feb. 8-10. Allentown, Pa. (Jan. 15, 2023) \u2014 The Muhlenberg College Dance Program will present … Continue reading Guest Artist Tommie-Waheed Evans Headlines ‘In Motion’ Dance Concert<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108438,"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-126515","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\/2021\/10\/muhl-college.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126515"}],"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=126515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/108438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}