The Texas A&M dance program will present its annual concert, “Perpetual Motion,” beginning Friday night.
The showcase will feature five faculty choreographers, choreography by guest artists Elizabeth Ahaern and Andy Vaca, a student-choreographed piece by Kathy Quigley and Texas State University’s Dance Company.
Quigley, a senior kinesiology and mathematics double major, hopes to unite Aggies through her piece “2:42 A.M.” in honor of Bonfire Memorial.
“It really stuck out as a very important tradition for me, and I wanted to represent it in dance form,” Quigley said. “And I feel like a lot of Aggies that come to the show are going to understand that dance a little bit more than non-Aggies. I think they’ll appreciate what it’s trying to represent.”
“2:42 A.M.,” along with “Fallen” — a solo performance featuring Lauren Dowdy and choreographed by faculty member Carisa Armstrong — will go on to represent Texas A&M at the American College Dance Association South-Central Regional Conference over spring break at Texas Tech University.
The Texas A&M dance program will try something new by incorporating social media in the lobby and show with the use of the hashtag #tamudance and a photo booth.
“There’s so many people that don’t really know we exist. They don’t know we’re really back here, so we invite all of our friends and family,” Annie Forman, kinesiology junior, said. “The people who come and do know about it can spread it to their friends and get more of the Texas A&M community connected.”
Along with social media, this year’s concert will be the first year to experience a performance exchange with Texas State. This exchange evolved from Texas State’s assistant professor Ana Baer Carrillo’s time as a guest artist within the program last year.
Christine Bergeron, dance programs director, said Baer wanted to expose her students, and students at A&M, to the different ways dance is approached at various Texas colleges.
Based off her time teaching here, guest artist Elizabeth Ahearn, an associate professor at Goucher College, said A&M’s approach to dance emphasizes the connection between the body as an instrument, and the anatomy that makes the body function.
“The department seems to have an interest in that connection to their anatomy and the instruments that they were,” Ahearn said.
In “Perpetual Motion,” Ahearn’s piece, “Landscapes for Figures,” with music by Zoe Keating and Melissa Fuller, revolves around the unique characteristics of particular landscapes such as a mountainous landscape, a coastal landscape and a polar region.
No matter the dancer’s background, Bergeron said every student who takes the stage at “Perpetual Motion” will share a similar sentiment.
“We are people that will constantly be in motion,” Bergeron said.
Perpetual Motion will show Friday through Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The performance will take place in the Physical Education and Activity Programs Building in Room 207.