UW Indoor Vertical Dance and Lights Along the Shore Set Performance June 9

Vertical Dance and Lights Along the Shore will team up once again for a special free public performance Thursday, June 9, at 5:30 p.m. in the University of Wyoming Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center atrium.

For its fourth performance at the Berry Center, the UW Department of Theatre and Dance’s Vertical Dance will present three dance pieces in a concert with Lights Along the Shore.

Lights Along the Shore will perform original and arranged work for performance. This instrumental ensemble specializes in original compositions and arrangements of classical and folk music from around the world. Ensemble members are UW Department of Music faculty members: Steve Barnhart, percussion; Rod Garnett, Moldovan, pan pipes and traditional flutes; Blake McGee, clarinet; and Lisa Rickard, piano.

“For our performance, we chose themes from biodiversity for inspiration,” says UW Department of Theatre and Dance Associate Professor Margaret Wilson. “The pieces will be abstractions of bird, animal and plant life, woven with movement unique to dance in the vertical dimension. The pieces are developed with the dancers and specific to the type of rigging.”

The rigging is designed by Neil Humphrey, UW Department of Geology and Geophysics professor, and adjunct instructor in theatre and dance. He and Wilson create and direct the specific pieces.

Performing will be UW Department of Theatre and Dance students Jordyn Brummond and Sydney Edwards, both from Laramie; Amanda Vinson, from Parker, Colo.; and Stephanie Young, from Springfield, Ore.; along with Humphrey and Wilson.

“We are pleased to perform with Lights Along the Shore at the Berry Center again,” Wilson says. “This will be Steve Barnhart’s last concert in Laramie before he heads off to North Carolina having recently retired from UW, and we are delighted to share in this performance with him. We also are grateful to the Berry Center for giving us such a wonderful and unique place to dance.”

She adds that the Berry Center represents the ideal interface of science and art.

“Vertical dance is, in fact, a beautiful mix of physics and choreography, and we continually progress our ideas with the opportunity to work at the Berry Center,” Wilson says.

For more information, contact Wilson at (307) 766-5138 or mawilson@uwyo.edu.