The Geneseo Dance Ensemble performs March 4–7. Pictured is Jillian Johnson '22. (SUNY Geneseo/Keith Walters '11)
SUNY Geneseo’s Department of Theatre and Dance Studies presents the Geneseo Dance Ensemble’s Dancing the Liberal Arts in Dancing Without Limits, featuring live and digital works by dance studies faculty and student choreographers with 25 performers. The concert is artistically directed, curated, and produced by professor of dance studies Jonette Lancos with associate director Mark Broomfield ’94, Ph.D., assistant professor (on sabbatical) of dance studies.
The performances will be held Thursday, March 4, through Saturday, March 6, at 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday, March 7, at 2 p.m. on the SUNY Geneseo campus in the Alice Austin Theatre in William A. Brodie Hall. Admission is free with limited seating. Reservations are required. Due to COVID-19 regulations, only SUNY Geneseo students, faculty, and staff are admitted. RSVP through the Student Association Ticket Office or via email at bbo@geneseo.edu.
Lancos will introduce Forward Into Light, celebrating the extraordinary efforts of generations of women dedicated to the suffragist movement in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that granted American women the right to vote. Adjunct faculty member Deborah Scodese-French will present Resilience, a dance based on images portraying the struggle and stark beauty of nature to overcome and survive. Adjunct faculty member Nicolette Ferguson will showcase Masked But Not Silent, moving in solidarity with protestors and all those who are speaking out against racism. Ferguson will also perform My Path, a solo “remembering and celebrating my ancestors, as I stand on their shoulders.”
Dance studies faculty also mentored works choreographed by students enrolled in the dance studies program. Adjudicator Norwood Pennewell selected Of the Essence by Lauren Hummel ’21 and Becoming by Samantha Bruno ’21. The dance faculty selected tap piece Fleet-Footed by Zachary Iannotta ’22 and Perspectives by Megan Leczinsky ’21. The Dance Improvisation class will also perform Action Words and the Dance Composition class will perform Sheltered Spring, both directed by Lancos.
In addition to Lancos and Broomfield, Dancing Without Limits is curated and directed in collaboration with student assistants Samantha Bruno ’21, Lauren Hummel ’21, and Megan Leczinsky ’21. Stage managers are Julia Albino’ 22, Hannarose Manning ’23, and Jake Rogan ’22. The house manager is Rachel Joseph ’24. Johnnie Ferrell, chair of theatre and dance, technical director, and lighting and sound designer, is mentoring several student lighting designers: Emma Celt ’22, Caysie Doughty ’22, Madisun Edmond ’22, Raphael Elmasri ’21, Tessa Hensler ’22, Piper Lambert-Vail ’21, Megan Palmer ’21, Jake Rogan ’22, William Snyder ’21, and Emily Zandy ’21. Bonita Stubblefield, lecturer and theatre costume designer, is designing costumes for Forward Into Light and Resilience.
Dancing Without Limits is supported by The Geneseo Foundation, local businesses, and other supporters.