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February Dance includes works experimenting with live music, technology and a ‘sneaker ballet’ - Department of Dance
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February Dance includes works experimenting with live music, technology and a ‘sneaker ballet’

February 5, 2025

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's dance department presented "February Dance 2025: Fast Forward" from January 30 to February 1 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. This event marked one of the inaugural performances in the newly renovated Colwell Playhouse Theatre. The program featured innovative works, including "Ayre," a collaboration between dance professor Rebecca Nettl-Fiol and soprano Elena Negruta, set to Osvaldo Golijov's song cycle blending Mediterranean, Arabic, and Jewish influences. Another highlight was "AGE," a contemporary "sneaker ballet" choreographed by professor Paige Caldarella and alumna Anna Peretz Rogovoy, performed in lightweight dance sneakers. Additionally, graduate student Banafsheh Amiri presented "Khazan (Autumn)," a thesis work drawing on Iranian artistic traditions to explore the history of Iranian women.

Read more in the Illinois News Bureau

Dancers on stage with green background

Photo by Natalie Fiol

Dancers on stage wearing pink

Choreographer Rebecca Nettl-Fiol’s work “Ayre” features soprano Elena Negruta and the Illinois Modern Ensemble performing music from the song cycle “Ayre.” Photo by Natalie Fiol

Dancers on stage with purple background

Choreographers Paige Caldarella and Anna Peretz Rogovoy created “AGE,” a “sneaker ballet” in which the dancers perform in lightweight sneakers made for dance. Photo by Natalie Fiol

Dancers on stage

Graduate student Gabriel Gonzalez combines technology with dance in the form of video projections and digitally manipulated images of the dance in his thesis work “Stunning!” Photo by Natalie Fiol

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