Cultures fuse in UNCSA showcase

By: LYNN FELDER | Special Correspondent
Published: February 13, 2011

Fifteen dancers in blue and gray will explode onto the stage at the Stevens Center on Thursday night, attempting to embody and express faculty-artist Diego Schoch's vision of heritage, spirituality and community. The dance, "Vozes," is a world premiere.

Winter Dance, UNC School of the Arts School of Dance's annual winter showcase, will also include works by renowned choreographers George Balanchine, James Kudelka and Alwin Nikolais.

Spanish for "Voices," "Vozes" uses music by Los Lobos and School of Dance accompanists Eric Schwartz (piano) and John Wilson (percussion) to create a fusion of cultures. The dancers will perform four main parts and an epilogue. The first, third and fifth sections were composed by Wilson and Schwartz and mixed in Wilson's studio.

"The piece has a particular spirit of community," Schoch said. "There's a solo figure at the beginning, and you might want to see him as the voice of one's heritage or traditions, calling us forward. Then there's a section that involves four overlapping duets that are quiet, elegant and perhaps spiritual."

Schoch has been on the dance faculty at UNCSA for three years. He attended the UNCSA college program for more than two years in the 1980s. He said "Vozes" started as a sketch to three songs in Spanish and was further shaped by a trip to five Mayan archeological sites in the Yucatan, Mexico.

"I go about making a dance, and I figure out what it means halfway through — or even farther down," Schoch said. " 'Vozes' is pretty much an abstract dance that comes from a lot of different influences, from my modern and contemporary backgrounds."

One part of the dance was inspired by a Mesoamerican game that uses heavy rubber balls. The balls, which weigh up to 8 pounds, are tossed using hips, shoulders and elbows. They are sent through stone hoops to score. But they are not kicked or hit directly.

"That was the specific inspiration," Schoch said, "but it doesn't necessarily look like a Mesoamerican ballgame."

Schoch had a concept for costuming the piece. "I'm not a big tights fan," he said. Carolyn Fay, the head of the dance costume shop, Kathy Grillo and Schoch went to Mega-Thrift to find pants and tops with a particular color scheme — grays and blues. "I didn't want them (the dancers) to look like they were wearing costumes. I wanted them to look like people."

The program also includes George Balanchine's SymphonieConcertante, a modern ballet set to music by Mozart. SymphonieConcertante has been restaged for UNCSA by Victoria Simon, the ballet mistress for the George Balanchine Trust.

James Kudelka's Gazebo Dances, set to music by John Corigliano, has been restaged for UNCSA by David Richardson, artistic adviser for Lockport City Ballet and former assistant artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre.

The program will end with Alwin Nikolais' Gallery, which uses creative costumes and black light; Nikolais also composed the music. Alberto delSaz, artistic director of the Murray Louis and Nikolais Dance Company and co-director of the Nikolais/Louis Foundation for Dance, will be assisted by Dianne Markham, a School of Dance faculty-artist and former company member, in restaging the piece.