Intersections

Performance by Master of Fine Arts Dance Candidates

The Department of Dance at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance presents Intersections, an evening of interdisciplinary dance works choreographed by Master of Fine Arts candidates Megan Bascom and Nicole Reehorst.

Intersections will be presented on April 4th, 5th & 6th at 8:00pm in the Betty Pease Studio Theater, at the Dance Building, 1310 North University Court, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109. Tickets are $7 at the door and are available starting at 7:00 pm. For more information about Intersections, please visit smtd.umich.edu/dance/#events.

Bascom's work, ReGuarding, interacts with imposed boundaries and perceptions of communication where trust is fleeting, empathy is precious and recognizing community is vital. Intersected by frequent interruptions, cause and effect are unpredictable and instincts are tested. Performed to an original score by Geoff Brown and Joey Fortino with trumpet by Josephine Ala, ReGuarding involves a split cast of eight dancers, including Bascom, who continuously evaluate the lines drawn between them with a mobile set designed by Joey Ostrander.

Reehorst’s work Playing dead investigates female performance within the canon of classical ballet. Playing dead seeks to complicate the narrative assigned to women in the Romantic-era ballet Giselle— a story of betrayal, madness, death, and survival— repositioning “her” as strategic and wild, soft and resilient. The work features a cast of five female dancers (including Reehorst), music by Frédéric Chopin and Clara Schumann performed live by pianist Yalan Piao, and costumes designed by Jessica Reehorst.

This thesis concert is being held in partial fulfillment of the Department of Dance Master of Fine Arts degree requirements. The research for this event is funded in part by the University of Michigan Department of Dance, the School of Music, Theatre & Dance Dean Discretionary Fund, the William Braddan McClellan, Jr. Fund in Dance, the Center for World Performance Studies, and the School of Music, Theatre & Dance Meta Weisel EXCELerator Grant.