115 Dance concert opens

The University of Southern Mississippi Repertory Dance Company will present its Studio 115 Dance Concert Dec. 4-6, featuring both ballet and modern dance that incorporate playfulness, history and experimentation.

"Sifting Bliss," choreographed by senior performance and choreography dance major Kathryn Piddington of Atlanta, Ga., opens the concert. Her work is set to music of The Album Leaf and portrays memories from spending a day at the beach with friends.

Maintaining a sense of play throughout the dance, it "looks at the fun and excitement that friends can have with moments of reflection," Piddington explained.

Janet Prieur, professor of dance, has restaged the original Petipa choreography of three of the six fairy variations from the ballet "Sleeping Beauty." Offered as "divertissements," which are short interludes performed between other longer works, each fairy dances and bestows a special gift on the baby Princess Aurora at her birth.

Highlighting the transitions from ballet to modern dance, Allison Beler, a senior dance major of aNew Orleans, La., has created "Convergent Worlds."

Set to the music "Sliding Down" by Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck and Mike Marshall, this dance duet "progresses from classical ballet movements to more modern based movements, while taking inspiration from important choreographers throughout dance history."

Closing the concert, senior Jennifer Plauche of Metairie, La., presents "Glitch," a powerful and eerie dance. It looks at three dancers who are human experiments that may or may not go as planned.

The three dancers "jump, glitch, slide, and interact with each other as they continue to discover themselves, each other and a way to get out of the room they were put in," Plauche explained.

The music by William Verkler and Apocalyptica adds to the unfamiliar feeling and intensity of the dance.

Also in this concert are new choreographic works by seniors Callie Minnich of Nashville, Tenn. and Jeannette Pecot of New Orleans, La.

The Southern Miss Repertory Dance Company performs annually, presenting original choreography by faculty, students and guest artists. Dancers are selected for the company by audition and perform concerts in a variety of venues both on and off campus. Most often, the works presented will have been newly created during the semester in which they are shown and receive their premiere at Southern Miss.

Tickets are sold at the door only for $5 per person. Shows begin nightly at 7:30 p.m. in Studio 115 of the Theatre and Dance Building on the Hattiesburg campus. For more information, call 601.266.4994.