Featuring IMPACT Dance’s Judy Bejarano
Colorado State University’s dance program presents its annual Fall Dance Concert on Friday, Nov. 14 at 8 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. The concert will be held in the University Dance Theatre at the University Center for the Arts, located at 1400 Remington St.
Tickets are $8 for CSU students, $8 for youth (under 18), and $18 for the public. Tickets are available at the University Center for the Arts (UCA) Ticket Office in the UCA Griffin Lobby, by phone at (970) 491-ARTS (2787), or online at www.CSUArtsTickets.com. Advance purchase is recommended to avoid at-the-door fees.
Each year the Fall Dance Concert features a guest artist, either as a director, choreographer, or dancer to be a part of this CSU tradition that consists of contemporary and classical dances presented by dance faculty and students.
“The Fall Dance Concert is a wonderful opportunity for our students to work with faculty, guest artists, and staff in a professional learning environment,” said director of dance at CSU, Jane Slusarski-Harris. “The concert focuses on an exceptional performing arts experience for the participants and for the audiences.”
This fall features the work of Judy Bejarano, who has been on the dance faculty at CSU since 1990, teaching Improvisation, Choreography, and Modern Technique. She is also well known for her innovative productions as the artistic director of IMPACT Dance Company, a dance/theatre company whose performances speak to issues in our everyday lives.
With her last choreographed piece for CSU performed in 2010, Bejarano is excited to bring her expertise back to the CSU stage.
“I love working with the students,” she said. “Returning as a guest choreographer provides a different essence to our relationship within the piece – we’re finding the bridge between dancers finding themselves and finding the voice in my work.”
With a career pursuing what she identifies as ‘the human condition of dance,’ Bejarano’s work emphasizes the beauty of individual dancers moving together as a community. In her piece for the Fall Dance Concert, entitled “Flocking,” dancers elicit the vision of birds caught in draft that is constantly changing directions. The movements start slowly and build dramatically throughout the piece.
“It represents an environment where we meet, interact with, and are influenced by each other,” said Bejarano. “We follow these undetermined pathways, responding to the changes around us.”
In addition to “Flocking,” the concert features the choreography and dance work of CSU faculty and students, including excerpts from the celebrated ballet work, Le Corsaire.
About Judy Bejarano
As artistic director at IMPACT Dance Company, Judy collaborates and creates custom events with area art groups as well as for private events. Bejarano is increasingly interested in redefining how the relationship between performer and audience. Therefore, IMPACT’s work can be found in nontraditional spaces, from art galleries, to storefronts, to airplane hangars. Bejarano’s work has been selected for many regional and national festivals including National American College Dance Festival, Colorado Choreographers Showcase, and Gala Concert for the National Dance Association Festival. Read more.
The University Center for the Arts at Colorado State University provides an enriched venue in which the study and practice of Art, Dance, Music and Theatre are nurtured and sustained by building the skills and knowledge needed by future generations of arts professionals to become contributors to the essential vitality of our culture and society.