October 12, 2023
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THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE AND DANCE
AND DANCE REPERTORY THEATRE PRESENTS
FALL FOR DANCE
NOVEMBER 9-17, 2023
AT THE OSCAR G. BROCKETT THEATRE
Dance Repertory Theatre returns in Fall For Dance, offering a celebration of movement and innovative choreography. Featuring works by faculty, guest artists and undergraduate choreographers, Fall For Dance presents a showcase of new and engaging work that speaks to our shared experience and illuminates the ways in which we connect with one another. Performances will include work by faculty member Gesel Mason, as well as Aysha Upchurch, Valeria Y. Gonzalez, Aída Hernandez-Reyes, Angela Cox and Ava Tran.
“This concert is dedicated to the artistic legacy of professor emeritus Yacov Sharir,” shares artistic director Erica “EG” Gionfriddo (ARCOS). “Our institutional memory is short. For 36 years, Yacov Sharir helped dancers on this beautiful, challenging journey of transformation. His legacy survives in the faculty, who continue the culture of growth and artistry he helped establish. His presence weaves through the dancing bodies on stage here. Even though these young artists did not share space with Yacov, they are touched by his legacy. His spirit continues on in their dancing. There is [also] another kind of heaviness here; a weight that needs sharing, but more importantly needs transforming. It needs to move. And this is where dance is at its most powerful – when our bodies transform weight into joy; heaviness into hope. We celebrate this glorious, transformative work to the countless legacies moving through the artists on this stage, the legacies just beginning to unfold and those that haven’t even yet begun.”
Works include Black Angel choreographed by Gesel Mason (Yes, And). Originally created in 1998, Black Angel responds to the brutal murder of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas. Byrd was abducted, beaten, chained to the back of a pickup truck and then dragged down a country road. His gruesome slaying led to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, signed by President Barack Obama in 2009. This work, restaged 25 years after Byrd’s death, grapples with society’s arduous affiliation with violence and hate.
Other works include pieces by guest artists, including Eternal Bonds .2l by Valeria Y. Gonzalez, a Mexican-American dance artist and founder of VALLETO, an all-female and non-binary dance company. Eternal Bonds .2 explores the enigma of time, the potency of memories and the multifaceted emotions surrounding grief. Aysha Upchurch (the Dancing Diplomat) also joins Dance Repertory Theatre this fall with the inevitability of work (and the joy in it). Upchurch’s work leans on African diasporic movement to create works of joy, connection and liberation. Other works appearing as part of Fall For Dance showcase new choreography by current BF.A. in Dance students, including tooth fairy Aída Hernandez-Reyes and what we cannot hold by Angela Cox and Ava Tran.
For more information about Fall For Dance, please visit JoinTheDrama.org
CALENDAR LISTING
November 9-17, 2023 – The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance presents Fall For Dance at the Oscar G. Brockett Theatre (300 E. 23rd St.), located in the F. Loren Winship Drama Building. A map of the campus: theatredance.utexas.edu/about/location-directions-parking
Performance times are November 9 at 7:30 p.m.. (PREVIEW), November 10 at 7:30 p.m. (Opening), November 11, 15, 17 at 7:30 p.m. and November 12 at 2:00 p.m. ($26 adult, $21 UT faculty and staff, $15 student; Preview performances: $10 adult, $5 student) are available for sale at F. Loren Winship Box Office and online at JoinTheDrama.org.. Office locations and hours: theatredance.utexas.edu/ticketing
ABOUT TEXAS THEATRE AND DANCE
The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance is a world-class educational environment that serves as the ultimate creative incubator for the next generation of artists, thinkers and leaders in theatre and performance.
ALSO THIS SEASON
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