American Modern Dance showcased in ‘Dancestry’ at Texas State

Posted by Jayme Blaschke
University News Service
September 10, 2015

The Division of Dance at Texas State University will present Dancestry, a celebration of artistic heritage and revival of historic dance, at the Patti Strickel Harrison Theatre September 11-12.

Admission is $13 for adults, $8 for students. Dancestry will run for three performances: 12:30 and 7:30 p.m. September 11 and 7:30 p.m. September 12.

Dancestry features legacy works of American Modern Dance, originally created by artists Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan, and Erick Hawkins. Lead artists include Shay Ishii, Artistic Director of the Shay Ishii Dance Company, Katherine Duke, artistic director of the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, Meg Brooker, artistic director of Thel Dance Theatre, and Jessica Lindberg and Megan Slayter of Lindberg/Slayter Reconstructions. Additionally, Dancestry will feature new works choreographed by the lead artists Meg Brooker and Shay Ishii reflective of their legacy techniques.

Featured works on the program include Lindberg and Slayter’s fully-produced reconstructions of four iconic Fuller works. Fire Dance, Night, Lily of the Nile and La Mer were carefully reconstructed from source materials found in the archives of Paris, London, New York and San Francisco. Lindberg, an adjunct professor in the dance program at Austin Community College, and Slayter, an associate professor of dance at Western Michigan University, have been working together on the Fuller reconstructions since 2002 and have staged the dances for performance by universities, dance companies and art museums across the country including the University of Washington, MOMENTA Dance and the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Maryhill Museum of Art in Glendale, Washington. Lindberg’s Fire Dance DVD was dubbed the handbook for historical dance reconstruction by the Los Angeles Times and the works are also featured on the DVD documentary Loïe Fuller: Dancing in the Light Fantastic.

Dancestry traces dancers and choreographers across generations with a rich historical narrative and a compelling contemporary voice. For more information regarding the concert and the artists, please visit txstatepresents.com. This project is supported in part by the City of San Marcos Arts Commission. This project is also made possible by a grant from the Support for Faculty Scholars Award, Western Michigan University and the support of the Dance Department of University of Nevada Las Vegas.