The Department of Dance at Case Western Reserve University began its 2018-19 season last weekend with Mosaics, a collection of new, revisited and guest artist dance work.
Mosaics will continue this week with shows Nov. 15-17 at 8 p.m. at the Mather Dance Center.
Showcasing the department’s successes with the use of new technologies, the program will feature the return of Gary Galbraith’s “Imagined Odyssey,” as well as a new work in his series of “media-rich” dance works.
The show also will feature Larry Keigwin’s “Caffeinated” and Nai-Ni Chen’s “Bamboo Prayer.”
About “Caffeinated”
“Caffeinated” is a zany and highly charged dance set to Philip Glass’s “Glasspiece #3.” The work was commissioned by New York University’s dance department and was recently expanded by Jaclyn Walsh, Keigwin’s regisseur, for a cast of 13 CWRU dancers that includes graduate students and undergraduate dance majors.
About “Bamboo Prayer”
Returning to the Mather Dance Center stage is “Bamboo Prayer,” a dance for five women that was commissioned by the Joyce Theater in New York, where it premiered in 1998. Inspired by the beauty of bamboo, a plant abundant in Chen’s native Taiwan, the dance exudes the strength, resiliency and grace embodied in women.
Chen was in residency at CWRU for one week to set the dance in fall 2017. Last year marked the first time a group other than Chen’s New York-based company performed the work.
About “Imagined Odyssey”
“Imagined Odyssey,” created through a collaborative project with CWRU’s Interactive Commons and Gary Galbraith, artistic director of the Department of Dance, is receiving its encore performance due to its success and popularity.
The groundbreaking, narrative-based technology work uses live holographic imagery featuring Microsoft’s HoloLens, an augmented reality holographic headset.
Members of the audience will wear the HoloLens to watch the dancers and holograms move seamlessly on.
The unique collaboration draws upon the expertise of dancers, artists, illustrators, programmers, network engineers and more.
About Galbraith’s new work
Galbraith’s new three-sectioned untitled work is another in his long line of media-rich dance works. In this new work, set to haunting and intensely beautiful music, Galbraith explores responsive media with projection mapping in new ways to create colorful moving images projected onto dancers, the floor and set elements.
Ticket information
Tickets for Mosaics are available at the following prices:
- General admission: $15
- Senior and CWRU faculty/staff: $10
- Students: $7
The student discount is not available for the Nov. 17 performance.
Individuals can purchase tickets with cash or check.
Ticket reservations are highly recommended. To reserve tickets, call 216.368.5246 or visit the Department of Dance website.
Tickets also will be available at Mather Dance Center prior to each performance.