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Northampton: The season’s most anticipated dance event will feature
the premieres of original works by Smith Dance professors Susan Waltner,
Rodger Blum, and guest artist-in-residence Donna Mejia whose new work is
grounded in the fascinating world of Tribal Fusion Dance. The evening
will also include new dances by graduates of Smith’s MFA program,
Cathy Nicoli and Candice Salyers, and by West African dance
artist/choreographer Marilyn Sylla and her troupe of drummers. The event
will run Thursday through Saturday, November 20-22, at 8:00 p.m. in
Theatre 14, Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts.

This is Donna Mejia’s third and final year serving as guest artist in
residence and it may be the last opportunity to see her perform in this
area for some time. Smith is the first college in the nation to feature
the genre of “Arab-American Tribal Fusion” as a part of the regular
department curriculum. Mejia has choreographed a high-spirited,
percussive work showcasing sophisticated micro-movement with unusual
musical interpretation. Her piece partners contemporary sound technology
with the doumbek, one of the oldest classical percussion instruments in
the world. She says of her work, “Arab American Tribal Fusion is an
emerging genre reflecting new technology in world music, cultural
exchange between the East and West, and intense international interest
in American hip hop and electronic music. The resulting dance is a
response to computer-generated accents and digital manipulation of
traditional instruments, while aspiring to the signature values of
Middle Eastern classical dance tradition. There is never a dull
moment!”

Candice Salyers received a BLS. in Interdisciplinary Arts from the
University of Memphis and an MFA in Dance from Smith College. She is
currently pursuing a PhD. from Texas Woman’s University. Her solo
performance work has most recently been presented by New England
Foundation for the Arts and Bates Dance Festival. Salyers uses her work
to collaborate with the audience to create a multiplicity of meanings.
Her solo piece, You (and everything else), explores the “boundaries we
erect in attempt to save ourselves from a world full of heartache, as
well as the futility of those separations.”

Cathy Nicoli earned her BA cum laude in Dance and Performance Studies
from Roger Williams University and her MFA from Smith College. Nicoli,
through her compositional framework and the shared performance of such,
explores the notion of assembly and the imagining of unity between
disparate parts. She approaches this by playing with various
choreographic principles, such as accumulation, repetition, retrograde,
construction, and deconstruction. Her piece features a five college cast
of graduate and undergraduate students.

Susan Waltner, choreographer and professor of Dance at Smith, will be
presenting a piece called “Just Ask Me.” The piece is an exploration
of the physicality of leaning, with an opening for metaphors of what it
means to lean on someone-and what it means to be leaned on.

Rodger Blum, a professor of Dance at Smith, will present a piece
exploring the romantic themes in the 1945 classic David Lean film, Brief
Encounter. The film is based on the screenplay and movie by Noel
Coward.

Marilyn Sylla is a Five College Lecturer in Dance. Her husband, Sekou
Sylla, is an adjunct in the Dance Department at Greenfield Community
College
. Together they have choreographed and performed throughout the
United States, Africa, Brazil, and Haiti. Both are excited to be a part
of this concert again.

The Fall Faculty Dance Concert promises to bring diversity, high
aesthetic values, and a variety of perspectives-all in one night.

Ticket Information: Tel. 413.585.ARTS (2787) or visit
www.smith.edu/smitharts