Students rehearse a piece for the Fall Dance Concert. (Photo by Prince Davenport ’28)
Kenyon College’s Fall Dance Concert will highlight the diversity of the artform, featuring everything from rollicking Hungarian folk dance to a live DJ getting the party started for some house club dance. The free show will take place nightly Dec. 11-13 at 8 p.m. in the Hill Theater.
Professor of Dance Balinda Craig-Quijada said the concert — which will incorporate a variety of live music, including piano, Hungarian bagpipes and the DJ — will have something for everyone to enjoy.
“It reflects the range and the diversity of what dance can be and its function in terms of how it serves to connect community, share cultural heritage, be celebratory, and be abstract contemporary art,” she said.
The show will feature works choreographed by faculty, a guest artist, a modern dance pioneer and students.
Among the pieces will be energetic Hungarian folk dancing led by Henrik Kovács, a Fulbright scholar visiting from the Hungarian Dance University in Budapest. Kovács, along with his wife and son, will perform alongside students enrolled in his Hungarian folk dance class. Public participation will be invited after the Saturday performance.
DJ Narcissistic will spin tunes for Visiting Instructor of Dance Isaiah Harris’s group piece, “Whose House Is It Anyway?” Harris calls the work “an ode to the history of house dance with a contemporary and Afro house flare. The piece elevates and moves to the stage the vitality of club dancing that brings so many people together in social spaces.”
As part of her senior thesis performance project, Ashley Sanchez ’26 will dance a solo choreographed by affiliated scholar Michelle Garcia Niño and perform a historical restaging of “Ef I Had a Ribbon Bow,” originally choreographed by Doris Humphrey in 1945. It’s been recreated from the Labanotation score by Julie Brodie, professor of dance and director of community partnerships.
Student-choreographed works by Rhiannon Campbell ’27, Cora Checkovich ’28, Christopher Jacobson ’27 and Bee Barton-Biegelsen ’27 will be featured in the concert as well.
The Fall Dance Concert is produced by the Kenyon College Dance, Drama and Cinema Club (KCDC) and codirected by Craig-Quijada and Assistant Professor of Dance Kora Radella. Costume design for the concert is being provided by Assistant Professor of Drama Chloe Cappuccilli, with Associate Professor of Drama Rebecca Wolf leading the lighting design.
KCDC will conduct a talkback session open to all on Monday, Dec. 15, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Peirce Pub.
Seating for these free performances will be on a first come, first served basis. For any questions, contact Kris Conant, production and box office manager for the Kenyon Department of Dance, Drama and Film at 740-427-5557.
View downloadable images for the Fall Dance Concert and Kenyon College.