Galloway, N.J. – Stockton University’s dance program will present a live broadcast of its annual Emerging Choreographers Showcase on the dance homepage at 7:30 p.m. April 23-25.

Eleven students will present their original works. This juried showcase for dance makers at the start of their composing careers is a laboratory for choreographic experimentation and innovation.  Students were even more creative this year in adapting them to social distancing.

“The showcase is filled with moments of striking physicality, unusual grace, and the unexpected,” said Assistant Professor of Dance Beau Hancock. “The novel online format allows audiences a personal experience with this forward-looking choreography, and provides these 11 developing dance makers a chance to cultivate their artistic voices. Witness the variety and vibrancy of the Stockton community’s finest emerging choreographers.”

Student Charlene Baker’s dance “Rhythmic Parallels” is about the parallel and imbalance between African and Modern dance.

“In the beginning I use slow and sustained movement to embody a form of Modern technique,” Baker said. “My movement then becomes percussive to embody African technique. In all I would like to portray these two different styles on a technical level and show how they complement each other within their beats and rhythms.”

In “Out of the Unknown,” Jenna Tomkins, a dual major in Dance and Health Science-Pre Communication Disorders, addresses exploration.

"Life is about exploring the world outside of your comfort zone,” Tomkins said. “Beginning with clear and concise gesture phrases, “Out of the Unknown” will progress to explore my own unknown. With surprising scene changes, this work will represent the unknown that lives outside all of our comfort zones.”

Anna Carosi will graduate in May with a dual degree in Health Sciences Pre-Physical Therapy, and Dance Pre-Physical Therapy and a minor in Holistic Health. Her piece, “Following the Movement” is an exploration of aesthetic kinetics that, she says, takes the viewer on a journey through what is seen, yet unseen.

“Through the environmental implications, one’s eye will catch the feelings of calming confusion as the point of view is refocused,” Carosi said.

Health Science major and Dance minor Jillian Umali said her work, “Diverge” exhibits the duality of uncertainty as both consuming and liberating.

“Now more than ever, uncertainty is rooted in all of us,” she said.

Junior Rileigh Mason's solo "{In}st{an}t” is about domestic violence and finding the way through survival.

"In an instant everything can change," she said. " I am sharing my story in hopes to help others to leave their stories to make a happier and healthier one. One minute you're free the next you're trapped."

Other dance works and participating student choreographers are:  “Transverse Trek” by Madison Derbyshire; “Surmount” by Andrea Tammaro; “Ashtanga” by Niki Chiaravalloti, “Intus” by Anodja Peck; “IDK (I Don't Know)” by Brielle Kimley; and “Optical Replay” by Cece Mitchell.

More information about Stockton’s dance program is at stockton.edu/dance.

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Contact:
Diane D’Amico
Director of News and Media Relations
Galloway, N.J. 08205
Diane.D’Amico@stockton.edu
609-652-4593
609-412-8069
stockton.edu/media