| University Dance Company | 2007-2008 Calendar of Dance Events |
| B.F.A. Degree Requirements | B.A. Degree Requirements |
| Murphy Hall 50th Anniversity/Elizabeth Sherbon Dance Centennial |
| Fall 2007 Dance Courses | Dance Courses and Descriptions |
| Dance Audition Application
Students have the opportunity to work each semester with guest artists of national and international repute. Guest artists teach master classes, choreograph works, and are available to the students and community through various outreach activities. Members of the University Dance Company have performed choreography by José Limón, Mary Anthony, Karole Armitage, Bill Evans, Wally Cardona, Patrick Corbin, Carl Corry, Claire Porter, Michael Simms, and William Whitener, among many others.
The University Dance Company will perform repertory from distinguished choreographer Twlya Tharp on its fall concerts on November 15 and 16, 2007, at the Lied Center. Tharp is known for her dense, physically demanding choreography, featured most recently in the Broadway hit musical Movin' Out, with Billy Joel, which will be performed at KU's Lied Center on May 1, 2008. In addition to her stage work, Tharp founded Twlya Tharp Dance in 1965 and has choreographed works for companies such as the American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Company and the Martha Graham Dance Company. Her work for film includes White Nights, Ragtime, Amadeus and Hair. Tharp's choreography is in the repertoire of numerous companies including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, American Ballet Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance Company, Joffrey Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Royal Winnipeg Ballet, among many others. KU Dance Director Jerel Hilding, who performed Tharp's choreography when he was a principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, will be the rehearsal director for Torelli, a work originally created by Tharp in 1971.
Karole Armitage is the Artistic Director of Armitage Gone! Dance, based in New York City. The company performs annually in New York City and tours throughout the United States and abroad. During company breaks, Armitage directs opera productions or creates new ballets for dance companies in Europe and the United States. During the last 25 years, Armitage has had opportunities to work with a wide range of artists, including the pop star Madonna, filmmakers Merchant and Ivory, painter David Salle, fashion designer Christian Lacroix and composer György Ligeti.
Armitage began dancing at the age of five in her hometown of Lawrence, Kansas. Her first teacher was New York City Ballet ballerina Toni Wortham. At the age of thirteen she traveled to New York to study at the School of American Ballet and later graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts. From 1973-1975, Armitage was a member of the corps de ballet in Balanchine’s Geneva Ballet, performing repertoire that included many of his masterworks, such as Agon, Serenade and The Four Temperaments. Armitage performed leading roles with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1976-1981.
Armitage created her first piece, Ne, in 1978 followed by Drastic-Classicism in 1981; works that led Vanity Fair to christen her as the “punk ballerina.” Mikhail Baryshnikov asked Armitage to create a work for American Ballet Theatre in 1984. In 1987, Rudolf Nureyev invited her to create a new ballet for the Paris Opera Ballet. From 1995-1998, she served as Director of the Ballet of Florence. Armitage also directed the Venice Biennale International Festival of Contemporary Dance, which featured more than 30 innovative companies from around the world. During a 2001 residency at KU, Armitage taught master classes and choreographed Power Surge for members of the University Dance Company. Two of the principals from that premiere who are currently dancing professionally in New York City and Kansas City will reprise their roles for the April 17 and 18, 2008, University Dance Company concerts at the Lied Center.
Bill Evans was voted one of the three top American tap dance artists (with Savion Glover and Brenda Bufalino) by readers of Dance Magazine in 2004. He received the Guggenheim Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and numerous fellowships and grants from state, regional and private arts agencies. He was the artistic director of the Bill Evans Dance Company (BEDC), based in Seattle and Albuquerque. BEDC performed in all 50 states and was the most-booked company in the country for several years under the Dance Touring and Artist-in the-Schools Programs of the NEA. He founded the Evans Rhythm Tap Ensemble in 1992. Evans formerly was a dancer, a choreographer and the artistic coordinator of Utah’s Repertory Dance Theatre and the artistic director of Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers and its professional training programs. He earned an M.F.A. from the University of Utah and is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst.
Evans received the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and two Awards for Excellence in Dance from the Albuquerque Arts Alliance. He was named Scholar/Artist of the Year by the National Dance Association in 1997 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Dance Education Organization in 2005. A major article about the international impact of his teaching was featured in the October 2003 issue of Dance Magazine. His book, Reminiscences of a Dancing Man: A Photographic Journey of a Life in Dance, was published by AAHPERD Publications in November 2005. He currently is a visiting professor/guest artist at the State University of New York College at Brockport Department of Dance.
Evans will be in residence at KU from February 2 to 10, 2008, and from April 16 to 20, 2008. In February, he will teach master classes and set a work on members of the University Dance Company to be performed April 17 and 18 at Lied Center. He will return to KU in April to perform a tap solo on the April 17 and 18 University Dance Company concerts and to participate as a panelist and as a performer for the Elizabeth Sherbon Centennial Celebration on April 18 and 19, 2008.
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