Emory Dance to explore somber themes in contemporary dance mixed bill

Chicago’s man-killer Roxie Hart. The six unfortunate wives of Henry VIII — two of whom were beheaded. Feminism in Aztec culture. Violence against women and children globally. The ugly duckling syndrome. These are the themes that audiences will see explored by the Emory Dance Company November 17-19 at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts Dance Studio.

Four of the new works on the mixed bill are created by Emory faculty — Julio Medina, Tara Shepard Myers, George Staib and Mara Mandradjieff, a dance scholar who performed principal roles with the Georgia Ballet and several other companies. Guest choreographer Lyrric Jackson is also creating a work.

The 25-year-old company performs twice a year: once with student choreography and once with works by faculty and guest dance makers. It is a professionally oriented student ensemble that exposes students to the different choreographic approaches of faculty, students and guest artists. The primary focus is the creation and performance of new work that investigates aspects of our humanity. This weekend, the concert is delving into some decidedly somber but compelling topics.

Medina, who teaches hip-hop, is presenting Tlalli – that’s the Nahuatl or Aztec word for earth, soil and planet. In addition to being steeped in his own Chicano roots, Medina earned a master’s degree in world arts and cultures/dance at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Tlalli is inspired by the story of the serpent god Quetzalcoatl and the Five Suns, as well as scholarly writing on feminism and the mestizaje, the mixed-race peoples of Mexico. This work is the first exploration of Medina’s next project, which he hopes to premiere in fall 2023.

Women — and men — are sometimes disparagingly referred to (or think of themselves) as ugly ducklings, before they grow into their authentic, confident selves. Staib’s Ugly Duckling is a contemporary ballet for 12 dancers that delves into aging, beauty, vulnerability, elegance, what society expects of us, what is real and what is a façade. Staib’s company staibdance made waves back in 2019 with his critically acclaimed work fence; he is creating a new, equally ambitious work, Ararat, about the Armenian genocide, which will premiere in January 2023

Violence against women and children globally, particularly during the Rwanda genocide, was the starting point for guest choreographer Jackson’s work command[ME]N(o)t: An Effort to Understand & Surrender Everything. The choreographer describes it as a “love letter” to those who have suffered sexual abuse, violence and assault. Jackson graduated from and now teaches at Spelman College. Her work A·li·en Woman premiered virtually at the 2020 Ubumuntu Arts Festival (Kigali, Rwanda) in 2020 and was presented as the 22nd Day of Peace via the 100 Days of Peace virtual art exhibition via The Peace Studio in New York.

As for Henry VIII’s six wives, assistant professor Myers first heard the phrase “divorced, beheaded, survived” in the Broadway musical SIX. (The phrase is one way English schoolchildren learn the fate of the king’s last three wives; the first three were “divorced, beheaded, died.”) The resilience of those women, and of Chicago’s Roxie Hart, who turned the tables on men centuries later, was the starting point for Myers’ MOXIE. The work explores different aspects of women, from the fun and flirtatious to the aggressive, strong and athletic.