Since 1981, the University of Iowa Department of Dance has put on an annual gala. Placing a focus on the student dancers and the faculty choreographers, the UI Dance Gala allows the university’s theatrical arts to take center stage.
The performance, taking place on Oct. 17-19, comprises five different pieces choreographed by a different UI faculty member, and even a special guest choreographer.
Each piece is unique to the choreographer who made it. Armando Duarte, for instance, is a professor who focused his piece, “Barro,” on his Brazilian heritage and the pride that comes with it.
“This piece is mainly based on the idea of resistance, which comes from the endurance that we, in this case, Brazil, went through,” Duarte explained.
In his piece, Duarte also utilized inspiration from the Quilombos, a culture that stems from Afro-Brazilian settlement that escaped slavery in Brazil in the 17th century.
“They had to create a system to resist oppression because [the Portuguese] would come and try to bring them back,” Duarte said. “But in doing that, they created communities. They taught their children. They created an active culture in poverty.”
Duarte’s piece is a little over ten minutes long and is a powerful commentary on the strength and connection of community, exemplifying both his choreography skills and the acting prowess of the eight dancers he cast.
As powerful as it is, Duarte’s piece is only one of five pieces in the program, almost all of which have been engineered by a UI faculty member. It is, however, commonplace for the Dance Gala to feature a guest choreographer, which this year is Annabelle Lopez Ochoa with her piece titled Sombrerísimo. The piece was originally choreographed in 2014 by Ochoa for the Ballet Hispánico.
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Like Duarte, Sombrerísimo is inspired by different aspects of Ochoa’s upbringing, particularly regarding her struggles as a person who is mixed-race.
Eloy Barragan, the Director General for the UI Dance Gala and an associate professor of dance was responsible for the 2024 Dance Gala and detailed his goals and inspiration for the event.
“As the Director General, I have named this production AGILE, a title reflecting its essence of the ability to create and respond to change,” Barragan said. “This showcase is a culmination of the artistry of UI Dance Faculty Choreographers Stephanie Miracle, Kristin Marrs Armando Duarte, and Eloy Barragán, each selected through a meticulous proposal submission process. Their original works possess a uniquely beautiful voice.”
The difference between the works in the production reaffirms Barragan’s reasoning for the name and selection of the pieces. The first piece, choreographed by Barragan himself, is titled Ephemeral Knitting Breath, and, according to the Dance Gala playbill, is “a dance that moves seamlessly through time and cultures, rarefying the here and now with tints of surrealism.”
Stephanie Miracle’s piece, “Since we have come this far how do we get back,” weaved together human bodies and robotic ones, raising questions of connection capabilities and how the growing presence of AI looms over art in all its forms.
Each piece in the production is an incredibly powerful one, with forty dancers cast all together for the event, displaying the care and time that went into this show.
“Since last fall, I’ve been searching for a world-renowned choreographer who can challenge and showcase our dancers,” Barragan said. “The entire production involved coordinating the efforts of choreographers, light and sound designers, and composers, as well as holding auditions for five different casts. We aimed to avoid double-casting so that as many students could participate in this artistic endeavor.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly states the number of performers cast in Armando Duarte’s work. The DI regrets this error.