Dear family and friends,

Thank you for attending our 2023 spring dance concert, Dancin' Out. Once again, our wonderful team of faculty, production designers and performers have created a captivating program of dance for you tonight.

Dr. Ting-Yu Chen returns to our dance stage and brings with her the new work, Heart Blossom. Heart Blossom is inspired by cultural music and dance that mirror her lived experiences: a fusion of Taiwanese and western classical aesthetics. The movement vocabulary draws inspiration from Chinese classical dance, ballet and modern dance. This new work is dedicated to her late father, a known Taiwanese folk singer who continues to inspire Chen to be her best as an artist and person. Tiffanie Carson's Sweetest Taboo is a homage to classic jazz dance, showcasing nineteen dancers moving on stage to the wonderful music of Nigerian-born British singer, Sade. Rounding off the program are additional works by Carson, as well as choreographers, Lindsay Browning and Daniel Padierna.

Dance is a universal form of expression that strives to communicate; be it to form community, worship, philosophize, entertain, share histories, express emotions or give visualizations on aspirations, struggles and triumphs. In all cases, there is a sharing of information that happens when the performing body moves and is viewed by others; and that identification of meaning is based on many factors that the viewer, you, bring to the “performance.”

I hope you enjoy the performance.

– Maurice Fraga