Theatre and Dance announces fall season

The Department of Theatre and Dance’s fall season of dance and drama brings nationally recognized directors and choreographers together with esteemed faculty members and talented students to produce innovative, original productions that both entertain and explore the human condition.

The fall season features a mix of live, in-person performances in the Center for the Arts, as well as ticketed, streaming performances on showtix4u.com.

The lineup:

Zodiaque Dance Company
Live performances
Oct. 16: 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 17: 2 p.m.
Center for the Arts
Mainstage and Drama Theatre
Tickets 

Online streaming performances
Oct. 29-30: 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 31: 2 p.m.
Schools performance: Oct. 29, 10 a.m.
Tickets

UB’s pre-professional dance company, Zodiaque will be back on the Center for the Arts stages in close collaboration with students and faculty from the Design and Technology Program. The company’s 47th fall program includes jazz, modern and contemporary ballet dance works. 

The show is under the co-direction of faculty members Kerry Ring, Michael Deeb Weaver and Lynne Koscielniak. Choreographers include Ring, Deeb Weaver and dance faculty members Melanie Aceto, Tom Ralabate and Chanon Judson, BFA ‘01, co-artistic director of New York City-based dance company Urban Bush Women. MFA candidates Anna Caison Boyd, Jacquie Cherry and Meg Kirchhoff will also present works. Kirchhoff’s piece will be a site-specific dance on film.

“We want to highlight the virtual aspects of dance performance and means of presenting dance,” Deeb Weaver explains. “To have UB at the forefront of that mixed media experience in one night of dance performance is exciting.”

Contributing to the show will be professional guest choreographer Takehiro “Take” Ueyama, director of the Take Dance Company.

Act 1 of each Zodiaque live performance will take place in the Drama Theatre, while Act 2 will move into the Mainstage Theatre. One of the live performances Oct. 16-17 will be filmed for online viewing Oct. 29-31, allowing audiences from outside of the Buffalo area, or those unable to attend a live performance, to enjoy the show as well.

Emerging Choreographers Showcase
Live performances
Nov. 6: 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 7: 2 p.m.
Drama Theatre, Center for the Arts
Tickets

Online streaming performances
Nov. 18-20: 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 21: 2 p.m.
Tickets

The 2021 Emerging Choreographers Showcase (ECS), “Embracing Action,” is directed by Joyce Miller Lichtenberger and features new dance works created by both graduate and undergraduate choreographers. In keeping with the diverse traditions of the department, ECS celebrates diversity in both genre and theme, presenting work ranging from contemporary to jazz, modern and more. Innovative lighting and projection designs by theatre design and technology students, under the mentorship of Lynne Koscielniak, add to the collaboration.

MFA Dance Showcase
Live performances
Nov. 19-20: 7:30 p.m.
Katharine Cornell Theatre, Ellicott Complex
Tickets (select “Calendar”)

The MFA Fall Showcase offers a peek into the creative process of dance-making, featuring works in various stages of completion from current MFA dance students. The showcase offers a space for choreographers to experiment and innovate movement-based performance. These works are often generated collaboratively with other artists, and the showcase offers a space for choreographers to experiment and innovate movement-based performance. The concert is under the direction of MFA dance candidate Meg Kirchhoff, with faculty supervision by Jeanne Fornarola, clinical professor.  

The showcase features work by choreographer Natasha McCandless that explores text and themes from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and includes ideas surrounding the theme of community, sacrifice and conflict. Samantha Schmeer will present a solo work that combines movement with nature and macabre elements to explore ideas of permanence. Other choreographers include Anna Caison Boyd, Jacqueline Cherry, Abby Cass and Meg Kirchhoff.

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 21st 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.

“Red Bike,” by Caridad Svich
Live performances
Dec. 4: 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 5: 2 p.m.
Drama Theatre
Tickets (select “Calendar”)

Online streaming performances
Dec. 10-11: 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 12: 2 p.m.
Tickets

A bike! A red bike! The bike! Remember being 11 years old and getting the bike of your dreams?

“Red Bike,” by Caridad Svich, explores the possibilities the world has to offer using lyrical text, ideas of class and social commentary, racing through time and memories, all from a child’s point of view.

Guest director Victoria Pérez is an accomplished theater artist, director and teaching artist. She is co-founder and artistic director of Raíces Theatre Company, the only theater company in Western New York dedicated to the development, nourishment and production of modern and original works addressing the Latino experience. Victoria is a musical theater graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City and has performed and toured in New York and Puerto Rico.

Tickets for performances in the Center for the Arts are $20 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors. Purchase tickets online. (select "Calendar" under "Events and Exhibitions") For more information or to charge by phone, call 716-645-6915.

Tickets are $5 for performances in the Katharine Cornell Theatre. Purchase tickets online. To charge by phone call 716-645-6915; for more information, call 716-645-6921.