PRESS RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS
COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS AND COMMUNICATION
September 20, 2012
CONTACT: Dr. Gayle Seymour, (501) 450-3295, gayles@uca.edu
CORE PERFORMANCE COMPANY TO BE IN RESIDENCE
By Dannielle Douglas
College of Fine Arts and Communication Media Office
CONWAY – CORE Performance Company, a professional contemporary dance company, will visit the University of Central Arkansas as Artists in Residence for Conway ArtsFest September 26-29.
“This will be the third residency for the CORE Performance Company at UCA,” said Dr. Gayle Seymour, professor of art history and associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at UCA. “This project will bring them back to Arkansas in an effort to create an even deeper connection with the residents of Conway.”
CORE was founded by artistic director Sue Schroeder and is dual-based in Houston and Atlanta. The group does not perform in theatres or typical dance venues but uses alternative spaces to break down the barriers between performers and audiences, Seymour said.
“CORE presents dance for a wide audience,” she said. “You don’t have to come to it with a pre-existing knowledge about dance.”
As part of its Conway visit, CORE will make school visits to third and fourth grade students at Theodore Jones Elementary and St. Joseph Elementary, using dance to talk about positive body image and bullying prevention, in a 45-minute narrated performance, The Heart of the Matter.
The group will also give a public performance, Light Moves, inside the Mirazozo luminarium on the East lawn of McAlister Hall. CORE performances will be from 4-4:40 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 28 and from 1-1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29. The group will also give an open rehearsal from 1:20-2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27. For free tickets to any of those performances, visit http://mirazozo.eventbrite.com.
CORE’s mission is to create, perform and present contemporary dance, and is dedicated to opening channels of communication and education between artists and the community. They take this opportunity while in residency to include outreach workshops in the community to raise awareness of the arts and dance in the public area.
CORE will also conduct workshops on “Creating Work in Non-Traditional Performance Spaces” for the Hendrix College dance students, Blackbird Academy students, and the Soul Speak Dance Company.
CORE Performance Company is funded by the Mid-America Arts Alliance with underwriting by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Arkansas Arts Council and foundations, corporations and individuals throughout Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. Additional funding is made possible by Alternate ROOTS and the Ford Foundation through the ROOTS Tour & Residency Program and the Arkansas Arts Council Arts in Education Mini-Grants.
For more information about the CORE Conway visits, contact Seymour at (501) 450-3295 or gayles@uca.edu. For information about CORE Performance Company, visit www.coredance.org.
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