Ursinus College Dance Program and Ursinus College Dance Company Present “Home Is Here/Hear”

The Ursinus College Dance Program and Ursinus College Dance Company will present their Fall 2024 concert, Home Is Here/ Hear at 7:30 p.m. December 5, 6 and 7, 2024, at the Kaleidoscope Performing Arts Center. The concert is directed and produced by Assistant Professor of Dance Michael J. Love.

Home Is Here/ Hear will explore community and belonging through an embodied, sound-based narrative. In this dance-theater piece, the work of faculty, guest artists, and select student choreographers will reimagine East Main Street as a composite of urban, suburban, and rural spaces, reflecting the diverse visions of “home.”

The concert features original works choreographed by Love, in collaboration with guest artists Lisa La Touche and Kaleena Miller; Professor of Dance Karen Clemente in collaboration with Ursinus Jazz Ensemble director Brian D. Langdon; and Guest Choreographers Amber Rudolph and uwazi zamani. The concert also features works by student collaborators Izabella Entrekin ’26 and Julia Smith ’26 and senior Jael Hicks ’25. The performance will span multiple dance forms, including rhythm tap, body percussion, vernacular jazz, Afrobeats, vogue, and hip hop.

Home Is Here/ Hear will be designed by Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Shannon Zura, who will collaborate with Technical Director and Production Manager Meghan Jones and Performing Arts Technician Steven Maurer to mentor and lead the student production crew. The artistic and production team will also include Guest Costume Designer and Coordinator Becky Wetzel, along with student lighting designers Sophia Bush ’26 and Caitlin Shanahan ’26.

“We are so privileged to work with Professor Zura, Meghan, Steven, Becky, and the student designers and crew members whose amazing work really brings the choreography to life,” Love said.

“These concerts are the culminating academic presentations of our program each semester,” explained Love. “This semester, students will present works developed in our Performance Practicum and Dance Repertory courses. I’m especially excited by how our guest choreographers have connected with themes we’ve explored in other courses such as Introduction to Dance, Interdisciplinary Performance Seminar, History of Jazz Dance, and our technique courses. Our students are asked to care for specific legacies and lineages, think across the African diaspora, and engage with various performance methods, including voice and text.”

The fall concert will be presented in a unique format and Home Is Here/ Hear will be a continuous dance-theater work instead of a collection of separate pieces.

To prepare, students developed their own characters and wrote biographies to explore their roles throughout the performance. “My goal was for the students to think deeply and critically about how they move through each transition and exist in each moment during the concert as related to the central themes of each piece and the complete work overall. The pieces that Amber and uwazi have set on the Company are gifts,” Love said. “It has been wonderful to watch both guest artists work with the students. Amber has a quiet power—she is caring and speaks softly but demands razor-like precision with her choreography that is packed with energetic rhythm. uwazi has high standards for technique and is working at the cutting edge of dance, conceptual performance, and sound design as both an artist and scholar.”

In addition to two new pieces by guest choreographers, Home Is Here/ Hear will feature a piece with live music— a collaboration between Clemente and Ursinus College Jazz Ensemble Director Brian D. Langdon which Love says will “ground the concert in the jazz aesthetic and bring to life the histories addressed in the other pieces.”

Love’s own piece will explore different styles of tap dance and body percussion. “When Lisa and Kaleena visited my Dance Repertory course this fall, they helped shape what will be a multi-section piece that demonstrates how expansive tap dance can be,” Love said.

The concert will also debut the Dance Program’s new custom-built, sprung hardwood floor. “This floor is the same type used by professional tap dance companies across the country, Love said. “It will enable us to develop, teach, rehearse, and present tap, percussive, and Black vernacular dance forms at a level that is rare for college programs.”

Rounding out the program is an original piece choreographed by student collaborators Izabella Entrekin ’26 and Julia Smith ’26 and an original piece by current senior Jael Hicks ’25. “These students have researched, choreographed, and integrated faculty notes like seasoned professionals. They’re emerging as the type of dancemakers and professionals we are excited to see out in the world,” Love said.

For tickets, visit ursinus.edu/tickets.

Event Details

Home Is Here/ Hear
Directed and Produced by Michael J. Love, Assistant Professor of Dance

Featuring choreography by faculty artists Karen Clemente, in collaboration with Ursinus Jazz Ensemble director Brian D. Langdon, and Michael J. Love in collaboration and consultation with guest artists Lisa La Touche and Kaleena Miller; guest artist choreographers Amber Rudolph and uwazi zamani; and student choreographers Izabella Entrekin ’26 with Julia Smith ’26 and Jael Hicks ’25.

Location

Lenfest Theater in the Kaleidoscope Performing Arts Center

Ursinus College

601 E. Main Street
Collegeville, PA 19426

Dates

Thursday, December 5 at 7:30 p.m., (followed by a choreographer/ designer talkback)

Friday, December 6 at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, December 7 at 7:30 p.m.