KU Connection - November 2007 - School of Fine Arts news

School of Fine Arts news

Design chair chosen for WSU panel discussion
University Dance Company previews fall concerts
Music professor receives Phoenix Award
Murphy Hall marks celebrations with November events

Design chair chosen for WSU panel discussion

Greg Thomas, chair of KU’s department of design, was asked to participate in a panel discussion at Wichita State University titled “Who Are You? Branding and Identity in the 21st Century.” The Oct. 27 discussion was part of an overall program hosted by WSU entitled “Branded and on Display” that includes an exhibition, public faculty discussions, student design competitions, lectures, demos and more.

Thomas joined other national and regional design experts to discuss how evolving corporate branding and marketing trends will affect consumers' future experiences. The panel discussion included Connie Soteropulos, creative group manager for Target Corporation in Minneapolis; Bill Gardner, founder of Gardner Design and Logo Lounge in Wichita; and Dean Headley, chair for marketing and entrepreneurship and WSU for the panel discussion.

“I am pleased WSU has asked me to be a part of this program as a representative of KU's department of design,” Thomas said. “The design department will continue to work closely with WSU faculty and students to collaborate in various ways.”

Additional information about the program can be found at www.ulrich.wichita.edu/branded.

University Dance Company previews fall concerts

Twyla Tharp’s “Torelli” headlines the University Dance Company’s 2007 fall concerts at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Nov. 15 and 16, at the Lied Center of Kansas. Tharp came to national prominence with her choreography for the films “Hair” and “Amadeus” and the Broadway shows “Singing in the Rain” and “Movin’ Out.” With Torelli, she has given dance companies permission to stage a work from a DVD. KU dance faculty members Jerel Hilding, who performed in three Tharp works as a member of the Joffrey Ballet, and Patrick Suzeau are teaching the dance, set to Giuseppe Torelli’s “Concerto in D Minor.” Choreographed in 1971, it illustrates the early Tharp style. Eight highly structured movement phrases begin the dance and form the basis for the subsequent improvisations by the dancers.

New offerings by the dance faculty will spin the performance in a variety of directions. This past summer, KU dance professors Muriel Cohan and Patrick Suzeau witnessed the ecstatic celebration of the summer solstice in Lithuania. Interspersed with ubiquitous pop music, ancient polyphonic chants could be heard. In their choreography for “Cycles,” Cohan and Suzeau attempt to capture the poetry and wild abandon contained in these chants. The dance features Suzeau as a soloist. Suzeau also has choreographed an exuberant ballet for five dancers to the music of Bela Bartok. He plays with rhythms and fast-paced energy in his Pas Très Classique, which is not altogether très classique.

Michelle Heffner Hayes, associate professor of dance, will perform a traditional Soleá, choreographed by Kansas City flamenca Miel Castagna, with live guitar accompaniment by Beau Bledsoe. Soleá is one of the basic flamenco song forms, from which many others descend. Majestic and lean, Soleá explores soledad, an intimate, often painful or ironic solitude. The dancing develops like a slow-burning flame with displays of intense carriage of the arms and complex footwork.

Hayes also takes a new look at an old Greek myth in “Cradling Persephone” to music by Peter Gabriel and Bjork. Placing Persephone at the center of the narrative, the work for eleven female dancers explores adolescence as a point of entry into the adult world. Through the athletic partnering and phrasing of the voluptuous movement, the piece imagines a space of transcendence beyond the moment of trauma.

Willie Lenoir, instructor of dance, takes the audience in yet another direction with “After the Harvest.” Lenoir says: “About the dance—the harvest is over. Three young women decide it’s time to celebrate. No more tilling the soil! No more planting! No more reaping! The party is on!”

Tickets for the concerts are on sale at the Lied Center, Murphy Hall, and SUA box offices: $10 public, $7 students and seniors. Call 864-ARTS (2787) for more ticket information.

For information about the UDC, please contact the department of music and dance in KU’s School of Fine Arts at 785-864-3436.

Music professor receives Phoenix Award

Vince Gnojek, KU professor of saxophone and director of the woodwinds division, was chosen as one of eight winners of the 12th annual Phoenix Awards, a project of the Lawrence Arts Commission. The Phoenix Awards recognize outstanding achievement in the arts. Recipients were honored at a ceremony and reception Nov. 4 at the Lawrence Arts Center. Gnojek was chosen as a winner in the Performing Arts category.

Murphy Hall marks celebrations with November events

KU's Murphy Hall celebrates its 50th birthday this school year. The music and dramatic arts building on the KU campus was dedicated on Nov. 10, 1957. The November 2007 events that begin the anniversary celebration include a rededication of the hall, presentations of “The Music Man” and a symposium on Broadway musicals of 1957:

* The department of music and dance presents a rededication ceremony of Murphy Hall at 5 p.m. Nov. 10 in the Murphy Hall Courtyard. This event is free and open to the public.

* The departments of music and dance and theatre and film will present “The Music Man” in Crafton-Preyer Theatre Nov. 9-11 and 15-17. This popular musical premiered on Broadway in 1957. Tickets are available by contacting the Murphy Hall Box Office at 785.864.3982.

* The departments of music and dance and theatre and film on Nov. 9-10 will present a national symposium directed by Paul Laird, professor of musicology, and John Staniunas, associate professor of musical theatre and chair of the department of theatre and film. The symposium, “Musical Theatre in 1957,” will feature presentations, discussions, master classes and performances. The featured keynote speaker is Professor Carol Oja from Harvard University. Additional support for the symposium is provided by the Hall Center for Humanities and the Office of the Provost. This symposium is free and open to the public and will be held from 8:30 a.m. to late afternoon each day in the Robert Baustian Theatre and Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall.

Visit the School of Fine Arts Web site for more information.