KeyBank Dance Series to Present Doug Varone and Dancers on Feb. 25

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present Doug Varone and Dancers at 8 p.m. on Feb. 25 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. A pre-performance talk will be held at 7 p.m. The performance is sponsored by KeyBank. Media sponsors are WJYE-FM and WGRZ-TV.

"Doug Varone is that rare choreographer with a gift for expressing emotion through dance. He has a company of daredevils, profoundly human super-humans who dance on a dime -- wheeling, darting and slicing the air at lethal looking speeds," says The New York Times

Doug Varone and Dancers performs a body of work heralded by critics as "among the most compelling in the contemporary repertory." Honored with eight New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies), the company has been singled out for its extraordinary physical daring, vivid musicality and genius for capturing through movement the nuances of true human interaction.

The company has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, performing regularly at preeminent venues and festivals such as: The Joyce Theater; The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; Queen Elizabeth Hall in London; Moscow's Stanislavsky Theater; and the Tokyo, Jacob's Pillow, and American Dance Festivals.

Varone, long regarded as a "choreographer's choreographer" (Philadelphia Inquirer), is today widely acclaimed as one of our nation's master choreographers. His unique artistic output has won the company more than 20 commissions (12 in the past three years alone) from leading dance presenters across the United States. Further honors include the receipt of three National Dance Project Awards as well as the American Dance Festival's Doris Duke Award for New Work.

Some recent touring highlights have included performances at Boston's Emerson Majestic Theater, in Opera Colorado's production of Rossini's Barber of Seville, choreographed and directed by Varone, with Opera Colorado and a tour of Italy.

The company's public performance on Feb. 25 concludes their three-week professional dance residency at the Center for the Arts. Confirmed activities currently include a lecture-demonstration and master classes at Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts, a lecture-demonstration at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet School and a master class for the Buffalo Contemporary Dance Company. The company also will teach a series of master classes to students in the UB Department of Theatre and Dance. 

Funded is provided in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional funding is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Ford Foundation.

Tickets are $20 for the general public and $14 for students. Exclusive discount coupons are available at all KeyBank locations. Patrons also may present their Key To Your Town key tag at the box office to receive the same discount. Tickets are available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Center for the Arts Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations, including Kaufmann's. To charge tickets, call 852-5000; in Canada, call 1-416-870-8000. For group sales, call 645-6771. For more information, call 645-ARTS. The Center for the Arts is a Ticketfast location.