BGSU to host OhioDance Festival

BOWLING GREEN, O.—The OhioDance Festival comes to Bowling Green State University for the first time in its 30-year history on April 20-22, with activities scheduled in the Eppler Complex and the Eva Marie Saint Theatre in University Hall.

Titled “Dance Matters: BiG Moves,” the event features public concerts on April 20 and 21, as well as workshops, panel discussions and technique classes on the same days for dance enthusiasts of all ages and expertise, from beginning to professional.

In addition, auditions will be held April 22 for professional dance companies, including BalletMet in Columbus; the Cleveland Contemporary Dance Theatre; GroundWorks Dancetheater, also in Cleveland, and Dayton's SMAG Dance Collective. Eisenhower Dance Ensemble, in metropolitan Detroit, will also be represented at the auditions.

The dance concert “Footlights” will be performed at 8 p.m. April 20 in the Whitney Dance Studio, located in 222 Eppler North on the BGSU campus. The concert will feature choreography by Colleen Murphy, Deborah Tell and Tammy Starr, faculty members in the University's Dance Program. Tickets are $5 and will be available at the door a half hour before show time.

The following night, adjudicated choreography by professional and young dance artists from around the state will be highlighted in the festival's showcase concert, at 7:30 p.m. in the Eva Marie Saint Theatre.

Starr will be among the choreographers whose work will be performed by dancers from Cleveland-based Dancing Wheels, the Findlay Academy of Ballet, Straub Dance Center in Westerville, Ohio University and the Toledo School for the Arts. Modern, West African and tap dance will join ballet and wheelchair dance on the program. Tickets are $12 for students and $15 for others.

Also on April 21, OhioDance will present awards to Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld, for Outstanding Contributions to the Advancement of Dance Education, and David Shimotakahara, for Outstanding Contributions to Advancement of the Dance Artform.

Brodsky Chenfeld, of Columbus, has been a movement educator for more than 50 years, while Shimotakahara, a dancer and choreographer, is founder and artistic director of GroundWorks Dancetheater. He is also a former principal dancer with the Ohio Ballet, winner of the 2000 Cleveland Arts Prize for dance and the recipient of several Ohio Arts Council fellowships. Both award winners will teach master classes on April 21.

OhioDance and the University's School of Human Movement, Sport and Leisure Studies are sponsoring the festival in partnership with the BGSU Department of Theatre and Film. 

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(Posted April 09, 2007)