Wyandotte Times

The University Dance Company Fall Concert will explore love, community and self-discovery through professionally choreographed works in ballet, hip hop and contemporary dance at the University of Kansas later this month.

“The students and choreographers are thrilled to be working in person again and are excited to present our newest dances,” said James Moreno, associate professor of dance and UDC Fall Concert producer.

Performance times are 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11-12 and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 13 in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre at Murphy Hall. Tickets can be reserved at dance.ku.edu, by calling 785-864-3982, or in person noon-5 p.m. weekdays at the box office in Murphy Hall. Additionally, the Nov. 11 and 13 performances will be livestreamed; online tickets required and are available at dance.ku.edu/streaming.

The concert’s finale is choreographed by Kristopher Estes-Brown, an award-winning creator who was in residency at KU earlier this fall. He’s debuting his modern/contemporary work “Shade of a Shadow,” which was inspired by a line in the Mary Elizabeth Coleridge poem “The Other Side of A Mirror” and set to cinematic music he composed specifically for this production.

Department of Theatre & Dance faculty choreographers are Ashley Brittingham, James Moreno and Maya Tillman-Rayton. Brittingham has provided original choreography for her student performers as they enact scenes from “The Firebird” by Igor Stravinsky. Moreno’s work, “Five Pieces about a Future,” features spoken word and choreography contributions by his cast and assistant director Mio Yoshizaki, doctoral student in women, gender & sexuality studies. Tillman-Rayton's hip hop ensemble turns it up with moves that speak to love of community and community building. The Jayhawk Tap Co. debuts several quick and impressive pieces interspersed between those works.

Knox McClendon, a senior in theatre design, is serving as costume designer. Dave Wanner, a longtime staff member and the department’s scene shop manager, is the scenic designer. Ann Sitzman, technical coordinator and lecturer in the department, is the lighting designer.

A composer, choreographer, director and teacher, Estes-Brown is the founder and artistic director of Concept Zero, a contemporary music and dance company that serves as the ground floor for his multimedia productions, which blend original music, dance, video and stagecraft. He danced professionally for companies across the United States including Milwaukee Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Oakland Ballet and Eugene Ballet. From there, he developed his own choreography style that is the intersection of movement, music and storytelling. His stage works have been performed across the nation by numerous dance companies. The Kansas City-based choreographer won the Monticello Award from Regional Dance America in 2005, and his choreography can be found in the Sundance Short Film “Crude Oil.” As a composer, Estes-Brown has composed scores for new theatre and dance productions nationwide.

Brittingham, a professional ballerina, choreographer and educator, has performed throughout the United States and Europe in nearly every full-length classical ballet and many neoclassical and contemporary works by the world’s leading choreographers. She has trained with and been coached by the world’s premier experts in classical ballet instruction. At the University of Oklahoma, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ballet and toured with the Oklahoma Festival Ballet. Brittingham later joined Tulsa Ballet under the direction of Marcello Angelini. She has received numerous awards, including the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts awardee in dance and musical theatre and was a semifinalist in the 2002 International Ballet Competition, one of the world’s largest ballet competitions. Her choreographic work has been performed by numerous dance and theatre companies. She is a full-time lecturer in the department and associate producer of the University Dance Company Fall Concert.

Moreno is a choreographer and dance studies/performance studies scholar. His current research examines how we use everyday movement techniques to perform our cultural identities and how we position our identities within continuums of authenticity. His ethnographic fieldwork for this research is being conducted in Mexican American communities in Chicago. Interviews from this fieldwork will form the basis of the dance-theatre piece on Mexican American cultural identity scheduled for winter 2023/24. Moreno holds a doctorate in performance studies from Northwestern University and is the author of “Dances of José Limon and Erick Hawkins” (Routledge, 2020).

Tillman-Rayton is in her sixth year as a lecturer of the Hip Hop Fundamentals class and first year as a full-time lecturer. She will be debuting a new work at the 2023 KC Fringe Festival titled “Stingy Lulu’s Jumping Juke Joint.” Her works have previously been shown at KC Fringe Festival and at National Dance Week KC. Her dance teaching career spans 15 years in Lawrence and Kansas City communities, earning several choreography and entertainment awards. She is also a two-time scholarship recipient from Monsters of Hip Hop dance conventions and a co-founding member of the House of Dragons. The KU alumna served as Unity Dance Crew president from 2001-2003 when she was a student.

McClendon is a senior majoring in theatre design. They also designed costumes for the University Dance Company Spring 2022 Concert. In addition to honing their skills as a designer, McClendon works as a costume assistant in the department’s costume studio. They are the Glenn Bickle Award and Stephanie Ann Smith Memorial Scholarship recipient for the 2022-23 year.

Sitzman is the technical coordinator and lecturer for the department. Her lighting design credits include “Head Over Heels,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Spring Awakening,” “Company” and “Picnic.” She was also lighting co-designer for the Kansas Repertory Theatre productions of “La Cage aux Folles” and “The Legend of Georgia McBride.” She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at KU and master’s degree in lighting design from SUNY Purchase College in New York. She spent a few years working off-Broadway on shows including Woody Harrelson’s “Bullet for Adolf” with Jen Schriever and “On the Head of a Pin” with Zach Pizza at 59E59. Since returning to Kansas in 2013, she has worked as assistant lighting designer for David Grill and Kirk Bookman at the Kansas City Ballet and lighting designer/production electrician for Harvest Productions.

Wanner has been the University Theatre scene shop manager since 1996 after earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre from Emporia State University. He was the lighting designer for the University Theatre productions of “The Ugly Duckling,” “Temptation” and “Pastiche” and scenic designer for “The Devils Between Us,” “Electra,” “Metamorphoses” “Pooter McGraw Is Not Dead Party,” “Tomato Plant Girl” and “Wonderful Time/The Brides.”

Student dancers performing in the UDC Fall Concert are Colette Adair, a freshman from Omaha, Nebraska; McKenna Bizal, a sophomore in psychology and dance from Overland Park; Morgan Blanton, a sophomore in dance  from Wichita; Hope Casner, a junior in exercise science and dance from Argonia; Alexandria Demps, a sophomore in dance  from Kansas City, Missouri; Johnny Dinh Phan, a senior in biochemistry and dance from Overland Park; Sydney Ebner, a junior in dance  from Shawnee; Allay Freeman, a senior in philosophy from Overland Park; Sophia Harrison, a freshman in dance from Topeka; Stephanie Hartz, a freshman in dance from Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania; Anna Hastings, a senior in dance  from Olathe; Kacie Herbek, a junior in dance  from Lawrence, Nebraska; Alex Hunt, a dance and mechanical engineering major from Farmington, Minnesota; Olivia Johnson, a senior in mathematics and dance from Des Moines, Iowa; Aubree Johnston, a junior in dance  from Lee’s Summit, Missouri; Mary Kozar, a sophomore in communications from Minneapolis, Minnesota; Cullen Krishna, a sophomore in dance and ecology, evolution & organismal biology from Bellevue, Nebraska; Lucie Lane, a sophomore in elementary education from Overland Park; Marti Lond, a sophomore in marketing and finance from La Quinta, California; Megan Londeen, a senior in strategic communications and East Asian studies from Kingman; Sadie Lucier, a senior in anthropology from Shawnee, Braedyn McBroom, a senior in atmospheric science from Wichita; Mahika Meesa, a freshman in political science from Overland Park; Savannah Meier, a freshman in journalism from Trinity, Florida; Audrey Merckling, a sophomore in film & media studies from Lenexa; Olly Mitchell, a sophomore in theatre from Wichita; Cailan Niswonger, a sophomore in dance  from Flower Mound, Texas; Katherine Noll, a freshman in information systems from Overland Park; Olivia Pennell, a senior in dance and communications from Springfield, Illinois; Christie Phillips, a junior in psychology and dance from St. Louis, Missouri; Hayley Robinson, a junior in dance  from Overland Park; Eliana Rundus, a sophomore in dance; Madison Seelye, a freshman in dance and business from Lawrence; Anna Shelton, a sophomore in dance  from Hesston; Lindsay Skinner, a junior in dance  from Des Moines, Iowa; Sloane Smith, a freshman in exercise science from Littleton, Colorado; Grace Stephan, a senior in dance  from Davenport, Iowa; Olivia Taylor, a senior in exercise science from Lenexa; Joslyn Vetock, a freshman in dance from Omaha, Nebraska; and Rizzy Xiong, a sophomore in secondary English education from Shanghai, China, via Los Angeles, California.

The University Dance Company’s Spring 2022 Concert is supported in part by KU Student Senate. The University Dance Company is a production wing of KU’s Department of Theatre & Dance. For more information about the University Dance Company, visit dance.ku.edu.

Original source can be found here