University of Texas St Austin to Present 3 Dance, March 8-9

Master of Fine Arts candidates, Ellen Bartel, Chell Parkins, and Alvin Rangel will take the stage with new works in The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance's inaugural M.F.A. dance concert, 3, March 8 & 9 at the B. Iden Payne Theatre. Admission is free and open to the public.

3 presents three unique new works by these M.F.A. candidates: Ellen Bartel's piece Watch WATCH THE GAP is a site-inspired contemporary dance about New York's Jamaica Queens train station. Using video and sounds from the station combined with original music by Adam Sultan, the performers movements translate the experience of train station to the stage. LILITH, a new work conceived and performed by Chell Parkins, is an intermedia dance theatre work that takes place in the not so distant future. And, Alvin Rangel presents TANGO VESRE, a dance expressing an evolution of male tango practice in Argentina through duets by Rangel and Alejandro Cervera.

"This program reflects the unique strengths of three sophisticated and provocative dance artists. First and foremost, they are working professionals who have returned to school, wishing to poke holes in the status quo and further the dance field through graduate study," explains Holly Williams, department professor and dance program head. "In this program they share the fruits of that rare intersection between studio practice and scholarly research, with performances that will encourage audiences to see dance in intriguing new ways."

Watch The Gap
Ellen Bartel

Ellen Bartel's Watch The Gap is a site-inspired contemporary dance about the Jamaica Queens train station in New York. In her investigation of transitional spaces-places, Bartel choreographs both pedestrian and dance movements to express how people move in the heavily trafficked hub.

Bartel arrived in Austin in 1994 and founded Spank Dance Company in 2000. She spearheaded the Big Range Austin Dance Festival in 2008.

Lilith
Chell Parkins

Lilith reflects creator Chell Parkins exploration into the tensional forces between embodied versus disembodied experiences in the choreographic process. Parkins received her bachelor of arts from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where she also studied method acting with the Actor's Studio of New York. While in San Francisco, she founded the dance company Brigid's Daisy and created two evening length works, which were featured at Joe Goode's Bread and Butter Series and at the then new theatre venue Cell Space.

Tango Vesre
Alvin Rangel

Tango Vesre expresses an evolution of male tango practice in Argentina through two duets, Parallel Tango by Alejandro Cervera and Bound Tango by Alvin Rangel. Issues of power, negotiation, equality, marginalization, gender roles, sexual identity, acceptance, and rejection come to surface in the dynamic duets. The work features the performances of Alvin Rangel, Ricardo Garcia, and José L. Bustamante, and includes live music by the Austin Piazzolla Quintet.

Rangel began training in ballet and jazz in his native Puerto Rico. From 1997 and 2004, he performed with the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) in Ohio where he originated roles in works by Bill T. Jones, Bebe Miller, Dwight Rhoden, Donald McKayle, Ronald K. Brown, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and Kevin Ward. Rangel will be working with Dance Theatre X and Compañia Danza Siglo 21 in the coming months.

More information: www.finearts.utexas.edu/tad/productions

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