[185] MTSU Dance Program Growing By Leaps, Bounds

MTSU DANCE PROGRAM GROWING BY LEAPS, BOUNDS
Dance Theatre to Perform Classic ‘Pond’ in Fall Concert Dec. 2-4

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 4, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Kim Neal Nofsinger, 615-494-7904 or nofsinge@mtsu.edu

(MURFREESBORO)— The award-winning MTSU Dance Theatre is using its new training in the work of a modern-dance pioneer to expand its artistic work, including touring in Chicago Nov. 10-14 and performing in the upcoming Fall Dance Concert Dec. 2-4.

The Department of Speech and Theatre hosted a weeklong residency earlier this semester with Alberto Del Saz, artistic director of the Murray Louis and Nikolais Dance Company and co-director of the Nikolais/Louis Foundation for dance. MTSU dance students learned repertory, participated in master classes and attended a series of lectures on Alwin Nikolais, one of American modern dance’s acclaimed pioneers, all led by Del Saz.

Del Saz then restaged Nikolais’ 1982 masterpiece “Pond” for selected members of the MTSU Dance Theatre, a pre-professional, auditioned dance company directed by Professor Kim Neal Nofsinger.

That opportunity is allowing students to reconstruct and perform “Pond” at:

• the Ruth Page Center for Dance in Chicago Nov. 10-14;
• the Fall Dance Concert Dec. 2-4 in MTSU’s Tucker Theatre; and
• next April in New York City at Hunter College’s “Sharing the Legacy: The Nikolais Centennial.”

“The growth of our program has been phenomenal,” said Nofsinger as students worked on site-specific dance improvisations outdoors at MTSU’s Uranidrome recently. “In the last six years, we have grown from fewer than 20 students to more than 100 dance minors today. We’re recruiting freshmen with scholarships now. It’s wonderful.”

On Saturday, Dec. 4, MTSU Dance Theatre will host a fundraising dinner in conjunction with its Fall Dance Concert for the group’s scholarship program and national tour. Reservations are required and should be made by Monday, Nov. 15, by calling 615-494-7628 or e-mailing chudd@mtsu.edu. Cost is $35 per person.

The 5:30 p.m. event in Cantrell Hall in the Tom Jackson Building on campus will include a pre-concert talk by visiting dance scholar Dr. Maura Keefe. After dinner and the lecture, attendees will join other audience members in Tucker Theatre at 7:30 p.m. to see the university’s dance company in a concert featuring “Pond.”

“Proceeds from the dinner will assist in funding MTSU Dance Theatre’s participation in the Hunter College event,” Nofsinger explained. “The performance in this venue will allow MTSU to perform alongside some of the foremost dance companies and universities in the nation and to be reviewed by some of the foremost dance critics, scholars, and historians.”

Nofsinger received funding to host the special residency through the support of MTSU’s Distinguished Lecturers Series and Dissemination and Service Support Funding.

The MTSU Dance Theatre Fall Dance Concert will be performed nightly at 7:30 Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 2-4, in Tucker Theatre. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for MTSU faculty and staff and K-12 students; MTSU students will be admitted free with valid ID.

Dance Concert tickets are available in advance by calling 615-494-8810 or by visiting the Tucker Theatre lobby box office from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets also will be available at the door before the performance.

For more information and a complete schedule of events for MTSU’s Dance Program, visit www.mtsu.edu/dance.


Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree—the only one in Tennessee—as a model program. This fall, MTSU unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.

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IN BRIEF: The award-winning MTSU Dance Theatre is using its new training in the work of a modern-dance pioneer to expand its artistic work, including touring in Chicago Nov. 10-14 and performing in the upcoming Fall Dance Concert Dec. 2-4. The Department of Speech and Theatre hosted a weeklong residency earlier this semester with Alberto Del Saz, artistic director of the Murray Louis and Nikolais Dance Company and co-director of the Nikolais/Louis Foundation for dance. MTSU dance students learned repertory, participated in master classes and attended a series of lectures on Alwin Nikolais, one of American modern dance’s acclaimed pioneers, all led by Del Saz. Del Saz then restaged Nikolais’ 1982 masterpiece “Pond” for selected members of the MTSU Dance Theatre. On Saturday, Dec. 4, MTSU Dance Theatre will host a fundraising dinner in conjunction with its Fall Dance Concert for the group’s scholarship program and national tour. Reservations are required and should be made by Monday, Nov. 15, by calling 615-494-7628 or e-mailing chudd@mtsu.edu. Cost is $35 per person. The MTSU Dance Theatre Fall Dance Concert will be performed nightly at 7:30 Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 2-4, in Tucker Theatre. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for MTSU faculty and staff and K-12 students and free for MTSU students with valid ID. For ticket information, call 615-494-8810; for more information and a complete schedule of events for MTSU’s Dance Program, visit its website at www.mtsu.edu/dance.

For MTSU news and information, visit www.mtsunews.com.

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For color JPEGs of members of the MTSU Dance Theatre in action, contact Gina E. Fann in the Office of News and Public Affairs via e-mail at gfann@mtsu.edu or by calling 615-898-5385. Thanks!