University of Wyoming Department of Theatre and Dance students, from left, Julianne
Vicari, from Highlands Ranch, Colo.; Lizzie McFall, of Glendale, Ariz.; Riverton’s
Jocelyn Alvarado; and Hanna Needles, from Sheridan, rehearse for the “Radical Humanity”
production. Performances will be Friday-Sunday, March 1-3, at 7:30 p.m. in the UW
College of Arts and Sciences auditorium. (Donald P. Turner Photo)
An evening of contemporary dance will feature original works by University of Wyoming
Department of Theatre and Dance faculty members and guest artists that reflect the
relationships, emotions and movements that define the human experience.
“Radical Humanity” is directed by UW dance faculty members Juliana Freude and Cat
Kamrath Monson and choreographed by Freude, Kamrath Monson and fellow faculty member
Aaron Wood, as well as special guests David Dorfman Dance, Robert Kleinendorst and
Sarah Lass. The production will be staged Friday-Sunday, March 1-3, at 7:30 p.m. in
the UW College of Arts and Sciences auditorium.
Tickets are $14 for the public, $11 for senior citizens and $7 for students. A nominal
processing fee will be charged for each ticket. To purchase tickets, visit the Performing
Arts box office, call (307) 766-6666 or go online at www.tix.com/ticket-sales/uwyo/6984.
“‘Radical Humanity’ presents contemporary approaches to dance in both ballet and modern
genres,” Kamrath Monson says. “The works explore the complexity of connection, relationship
and community.”
The program opens with Freude’s “To Kill an Innocent,” an excerpt from “Morale: The
Value of Identity.” The piece analyzes what holds the potential to reconcile with
internal moral struggles as a means toward transforming and reintegrating conflicting
natures, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, while driving forward the process
of healing.
Following is “Draw Back Your Bow,” a work choreographed by visiting company members
from David Dorfman Dance as a portion of their developing evening-length work “Truce.”
The piece inquires where to find truce in daily lives; how long it can and does last;
and how truce differs from peace.
The production continues with “Movements II, IV and I,” choreographed by Wood and
Lass as part of a larger, in-process concert dance, currently titled “Six Movements.”
The work is an open-ended conversation between moving and being moved, resisting and
surrendering, and finding a way and getting lost, which asks how everyone is involved
and implicated in a shared world.
Next is “Tktktktk,” created by Kleinendorst, a former member of the Paul Taylor Dance
Company, and set on participating students during last summer’s Snowy Range Dance
Festival.
The production ends with “Wonder//Wander,” a piece investigating the weaving of close
connection and independence. Created in 2023 by Kamrath Monson -- in collaboration
with artists in Cat + Fish Dances -- the dancers will circulate and drift; gaze and
marvel; gather; and diverge as they establish their own world onstage.
For more information, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160
or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.
