Seven is the lucky number for “Danceworks 2004,” the Northwestern dance faculty’s annual show, with seven shows and the compilation of seven dramatically different dance pieces.
The dance numbers are choreographed by NU faculty members as well as guest choreographers.
Costume director and NU alumna Michelle Tesdall, who said her work on “Danceworks” was a chance to make her designs “a little more fantastical,” chose red Spandex pants and tops with black see-through cover-ups to open the show with new NU Dance Program director Joseph Mills’ balletic “Float.”
NU alumna Jenny Shore’s “It’s All the Rage” features girls in poodle skirts dancing as if they’re part of an extended Gap commercial, with upbeat 1950s music and all.
In sharp contrast, dance professor Moustapha Bangoura’s traditional African dance piece, “Initiation,” has three drummers performing onstage.
There’s also dance professor Bril Barrett’s “Cute, or Something Like That” that begins with two rows of tappers dancing in suits, then transitions to rapper Big Punisher’s “Still Not a Player.”
Artistic director and dance professor Billy Siegenfeld said this year’s show is the most diverse “Danceworks” yet.
“The variety is deeper,” he said.
Siegenfeld chose French jazz and dialogue from “Jane Eyre” in excerpts from his “Sorrows of Unison Dancing,” which shifts between a stiff dance class and a dancer finding her own fluid movement.
Dance professor Lisa Wymore’s “DryLand” features video projection, lyrical dance, swings and a Johnny Cash song.
Danceworks 2004 runs Friday, Feb. 27, Saturday, Feb. 28 and March 4-6 at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Feb. 29 and March 7 at 2 p.m. in the Louis Theater (in the Theatre and Interpretation Center). For ticket information, call (847) 491-7282.
