February 7, 8 and 9, 2013, 8:00 P.M.
UMBC Theatre, Performing Arts and Humanities Building
Contact:
Thomas Moore
410-455-3370
tmoore@umbc.edu
Alicia DeWitt
410-455-3495
adewitt@umbc.edu
UMBC presents the 30th Anniversary concerts of Baltimore Dance Project on February 7, 8 and 9, celebrating the ensemble's 30 years of cutting edge performances. Led by artistic directors and choreographers Carol Hess and Doug Hamby, and featuring principal dancer Sandra Lacy, these special concerts mark the first dance performances on the stage of UMBC's new Proscenium Theatre in the Performing Arts and Humanities Building. All performances will be at 8:00 p.m.; tickets are available through MissionTix at missiontix.com.
Rooted within the practice of unifying multiple forms of art, Baltimore Dance Project has commanded the stage for 30 years. The company's performances will celebrate this legacy by exhibiting a blend of multimedia dance by Doug Hamby and Carol Hess that converges at the intersection of time and at the crossroads of music, dance and visual art. These works, created in collaboration with musicians, artists and poets, will feature live music, spoken word and a riveting dance by award-winning performer Sandra Lacy.
The program will include Doug Hamby's group piece Past/Forward (2012), a visually stunning work in which dancers perform alongside silent dance films of the 1950s, playfully exploring the spatiotemporal characteristics of live performance. The company will also debut two premieres: If I Told Him, in which a dancer creates a compelling and theatrical event as he dances, recites poetry by Gertrude Stein and manipulates a rope stretched across the stage; and Common Axis, created by Hamby and Hess in collaboration with artist Timothy Nohe in commemoration of the company's 30th anniversary, a meld of movement from Baltimore Dance Project's past and present works.
The concerts will also include Doug Hamby's Construction #2, featuring music of the same name composed by John Cage and performed live by percussionist Tom Goldstein and UMBC Department of Music alumni.
Sandra Lacy will be featured in two works. The first, Once Again, is a surreal journey into the haunting interior life of a performer, choreographed by Lorraine Chapman and Sandra Lacy; the second is Out to Play, a fanciful and fun loving duet that celebrates the ability to play, take risks and indulge in whimsy, choreographed and performed by Sandra Lacy and Adrienne Clancy.
About Carol Hess, choreographer
Carol Hess studied extensively under Robert Ellis Dunn, and has performed with Hannah Kahn and Dancers, The Rondo Dance Theatre, and DANCES/Janet Soares in New York and has appeared as a tap soloist on television and in concert throughout the United States and Europe. Hess has also received numerous awards for her choreography, including one from the Maryland Council for Dance. She is currently the UMBC Department of Dance Chair and Associate Professor.
About Doug Hamby, choreographer
Doug Hamby, associate professor of Dance at UMBC, has performed across the country in companies directed by Martha Graham, May O'Donnell, Elizabeth Keen, Pearl Lang and Norma Walker, and has received choreography awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maryland State Arts Council, the New York State Council for the Arts, the Baltimore Mayor's Advisory committee on Arts and Culture and others.
About Sandra Lacy, principal dancer
Featured dancer and UMBC Department of Dance faculty member, Sandra Lacy has had numerous years of experience as a dancer and is a six-time recipient of the Maryland State Art Council's Individual Artist Award in Solo Dance Performance. She has performed with the Maryland Ballet, Impetus Dance Company, Path Dance Company, James Hansen's Assemblage Dance Company and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane and Company, and is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dancing in London.
Ticket and General Information
$20 general admission, $10 students and seniors, $7 UMBC students
UMBC Arts & Culture Calendar: artscalendar.umbc.edu
Images for Media
www.umbc.edu/newsevents/arts/hi-res/
Photos in this release by Marlayna Demond.
Directions and Parking Information
UMBC is located approximately 10 minutes from downtown Baltimore and 20 minutes from I-495.
• From I-95 between Baltimore and Washington, take exit 47B. Follow signs for Route 166 toward Catonsville, signs for UMBC, and then signs to Baltimore Dance Project parking.
• From I-695, take Exit 12C (Wilkens Avenue west) and continue one-half mile to the entrance of UMBC at the roundabout intersection of Wilkens Avenue and Hilltop Road. Turn left and follow signs to Baltimore Dance Project parking.
