UB Department of Theatre and Dance presents MFA dance showcase

Buffalo, NY – The University at Buffalo second annual MFA Dance Concert will feature new works by MFA student choreographers Naila Ansari, Jacqueline Cherry, Meg Kirchhoff, Kate Mackey, Mary Schnepf, Mary Grace Sullivan, Nitya Vedantam, and Phil Wackerfuss. The faculty supervisor for the concert is associate professor and director of undergraduate dance, Melanie Aceto.

The concert reflects the wide range of research questions and interests of the graduate students involved. Pieces range from self-reflection about how lack of confidence can play into hesitation; consideration of emotional responses to music, line, and shape, and how these can be utilized to create meaning in movement; and celebrating and holding space for all aspects of embodied female experience, from trauma to resilience and joy.

Many of the student pieces are multidisciplinary and feature a variety of mediums including poetry, film and original music. Several works are direct collaborations with undergraduate dance majors, as well as with graduate students in other UB departments, including Dana Venerable, Department of English; Michael Spears, Department of Media Study; and Robyn Horn,Theatre and Performance. Outside collaborators include musician Zhanna Reed and award-winning poet Ten Thousand. Both Reed and Ten Thousand will perform live in Naila Ansari’s piece, “It’s in the absence that we find JOY.”

Mary Grace Sullivan will present a solo performed by undergraduate senior Katherine Tomney. The piece travels through time and space by conjuring and re-imagining the memories of a little girl who still lives within the adult she has become. An audio file of Sullivan's four-year-old daughter performing at home sparked the creative research for the piece by way of imagination, play, and the music of David Bowie.

UB’s dance program is built on the belief that dance is a fundamental expression of humanity with the ability to inform, transform, reflect upon, and lead local and global change in the 21^st century. With close faculty mentorship and numerous opportunities to create and present work, MFA Dance students engage in advanced practical, theoretical, and critical inquiry while honing their abilities as artists, dance makers, educators, writers, innovators, scholars, policy makers and leaders.

The MFA program welcomes students from various backgrounds, ranging from recent BA/BFA graduates to returning professionals wishing to deeply engage with the dance-making process. Each student integrates his/her unique interests into innovative ways of seeing, thinking about, communicating and being in the world through dance. Students take advantage of the dynamic range of robust curricular offerings at UB by devising an individualized secondary emphasis.

By following a personalized sequence of study, together with their core courses, students create a research path that fits their interests, culminating in an MFA creative thesis project and the MFA Thesis Concert, April 24-26, 2020 at the Katharine Cornell Theatre. For more information, or to apply to the UB Dance MFA visit: https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/theatre-dance/graduate/dance-mfa

DATES & TIMES:
Friday, Nov. 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 23 at 7:30 p.m.

LOCATION:
UB Katharine Cornell Theatre
Ellicott Complex
University at Buffalo
North Campus

Directions: https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/theatre-dance/season/venues-studios-shops/directions-to-venues.html#title_1

TICKETS:
$10 Adult
$5 Student / Senior

https://www.eventbrite.com/d/ny--university-at-buffalo/arts--events/mfa-dance-katharine/?page=1

Tickets are also available at the door one hour prior to show at the KCT Box

Office, accepting cash and credit/debit cards.

General Information:
Cindy Guido
(716) 645-6897
cvguido@buffalo.edu

Media Inquiries:
Karen Dunn
(716) 645-6771
kdunn2@buffalo.edu

Group Sales: 
Mike Formato
(716) 645-0611
formato@buffalo.edu

http://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/theatre-dance