The Washington University Dance Collective (WUDC), the resident dance company of the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, will present “Transcendence,” an evening of new and original choreography, at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 4 and 5.
Led by artistic directors Cecil Slaughter and Ryadah Heiskell, “Transcendence” will feature 40 dancers — representing a wide range of backgrounds and movement styles — performing nine works by faculty, student and guest choreographers.
“’Transcendence’ explores the ability to push past the norm and, through our own efforts or a nudge from something outside of ourselves, heighten our mundane experience beyond usual comforts,” Heiskell wrote in her director’s note. “How do you respond to limits? Compliance or rebellion?”
The program will open with 12 dancers in “Must Be the Place,” a meditation on the meaning of home by Lexy Sokolowski, an Arts & Sciences senior majoring in psychology-neuroscience-philosophy and in mathematics.
In “Tandem: A Fairytale and Bildungsroman,” Emma Katz, a senior majoring in dance and in comparative literature in Arts & Sciences, examines the use of narrative on stage and in life. “Tabula Rasa” by Christopher J. Salango, a master’s candidate in dance and former member of the acclaimed company Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, explores the power of movement to foster understanding.
“World Still Turning,” by Lily Rich, an undergraduate Losos Fellow majoring in dance and in religious studies in Arts & Sciences, explores the curious mix of frustration and elation that arise from the realization that others aren’t focused on one’s own struggles.
Next will be Slaughter’s “Ascension,” a new work for 20 dancers, followed by Heiskell’s “the sanity of madness,” a tap piece for 18 dancers. MFA candidate Lorraine “Rain” Stippec, who has performed at The Muny, the Fox Theatre and other prominent venues, choreographs “sharing silence,” a work in three movements exploring the rhythms of personal relationships.
In “the questioning mind,” Alexandra Acevedo, a senior studying dance, as well as marketing and business administration at Olin Business School, explores what happens when someone loses trust in themselves.
Concluding the program will be “Rhythm Gardens,” by Erin Morris, a 2023 alumna and manager of the Instruction Design Studio in the WashU School of Medicine’s Office of Education. This partly improvised work, which features the entire company, is a loving homage to the cultivation of relationships.
Performances take place in Edison Theatre. Tickets are $20, or $15 for seniors, students and WashU faculty and staff, and free for WashU students. Tickets are available through the WashU Box Office.
Edison Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6465 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call 314-935-6543 or visit pad.wustl.edu.
