Exploding torsos and other dances

Eight choreographers will showcase work at this year’s Graduate/Undergraduate Dance Concert, and each dance differs from the others.

The performance will take place at Space/Place; admission is $12 for adults, $6 for seniors and youth, and free for UI students with valid IDs.

The show’s choreographers include graduate fellow Jiaxi Li, who prepared a contemporary ballet titled “Dimensional Current,” and graduate student Johanna Kirk, the creator of “The Second Story.” Graduate choreographer Amy Barr-Holm’s duet “Conversations With Becky” features text and popular music. She said the dance will involve “inflatable torsos that are silver, and they blow up in the beginning of the piece.”

With inflatable torsos thrown into a mix of modern dance and contemporary ballet, the performances run the gamut of dance. Choreographers and performers have been rehearsing for approximately two months.

In addition to choreographing, leaders also must search through a huge inventory of costumes, create set designs to fit their themes, and choose their types of music. Some dances have no music — just text.

Because the Graduate/Undergraduate dance is performed annually, the participants must get an early start.

“The students know right away they want to start preparing if they want to adjudicate their work,” said Charlotte Adams, a UI dance department faculty member.

Choreographers created their pieces from scratch. From approximately 15 submissions, eight were chosen. Adams described the following dancers’ auditions as exciting because of the large variety of talented people who participated.

“That was a really good process to have everybody auditioning and seeing who is out there and wants to be dancing,” she said. “The choreographers needed a lot of dancers, so it will definitely be interesting to see the variety of talent brought in.”

— by Alissa Rosen