This weekend, SUNY Brockport's renowned dance faculty teams up with some of the department's most accomplished dance majors to present original faculty choreography in "Danscore 2007: Moving to Make Things Whole." African and Irish dancing as well as modern and rhythm tap are slated for this annual talent showcase.

Bill Evans, visiting professor and guest artist, is Danscore's artistic director for the second consecutive year. Evans was recently awarded a National Endowment of the Arts grant for his work; past recipients of the award include Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Mark Morris

In this weekend's performances, Brockport dancers will present "Craps," a modern dance that Evans choreographed in 1979 for his dance company at the time, the Seattle-based Bill Evans Dance Company. Dance musician Greg Ketchum and bassist James J. Kaufman will provide the accompaniment.

"Craps" was originally conceived as part of a full-evening work, "Mixin' It Up," which Evans created in collaboration with a highly regarded jazz pianist also named Bill Evans. Evans the dancer recently restaged "Craps" using funds from the NEA grant. The piece's name is derived from the correspondence between the music's seven-count phrases and the lucky number seven in the titular game of chance.

Evans will be on stage himself during Danscore as well, performing with Irish dancer Eddie Murphy in "Los Gringos," a piece they choreographed together that fuses Irish dance and rhythm tap with a hint of flamenco. Murphy is the founder and director of Rochester's award-winning Drumcliffe Irish Dance Co. and an adjunct professor at Brockport. The dance will be performed to "Songs of Spain" by Isaac Albeniz, played live by pianist Mark Olivieri.

Head of the Dance Department Darwin Prioleau also brings a newly choreographed dance to the stage this weekend. "Woman: Claiming Courage, Breathing Spirit" is a piece she created after spending part of the summer in West Africa researching the connection between African dance and American jazz dance. 

Prioleau recalls her experiences in small villages of the Republic of The Gambia, where she says her arrival was met with much fanfare: nearly 100 men, women, and children, all singing, dancing or drumming, met her on the road to their village. During her stay, Prioleau also witnessed a birth dance and a tree-planting ceremony to honor the dead. She emphasizes the prevalence of the often-ceremonial community dancing in West Africa versus the presentational dancing usually seen in the United States.

It was the women of the Gambia, however, who made the strongest impression on Prioleau and inspired the creation of her new piece. "The women there are strong, proud and beautiful - even those who are poor by American standards," she says. "They have a regal bearing.... These elegant women would build cooking fires or color cloth in huge vats of dye, but they never lost their pride or their support for each other."

Students will perform Prioleau's modern dance to the music of West African singer Soni and a live drum piece composed and played by Khalid Saleem, music director of Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble at Brockport, and James Holland.

New choreography by associate professor James Hansen will also be of special note in Danscore. This summer, Hansen presented his work in two prestigious New York City dance festivals, the International Dance Festival in July and the American Dance Guild Performance Festival in September. After the first, The New York Times described his work as "a thoughtful meditation on group dynamics."

Other faculty choreographers will include professor Jacqueline Davis, assistant professor Anne Burnidge, guest artist Habib Iddrisu, assistant professor/assistant artistic director Suzanne Oliver, and associate professor Juanita Suarez.

The performance on Saturday, November 17, is a fundraiser for dance scholarships. Attendees on this evening will be able to join the performing artists for a reception after the performance. Tickets cost $35. For more information visit the Friends of Brockport dance blog at friendsofbrockportdance.org.