51°µÍø

Two world premieres by noted guest choreographers and the revival of an acclaimed work by jazz dance artist and faculty member Danny Buraczeski will be the featured works of the Spring Dance Concert presented by 51°µÍø’s Meadows School of the Arts, March 25-29 in the Bob Hope Theatre of the Owen Arts Center, 6101 Bishop Blvd. on the 51°µÍø campus.

Opening the program is the premiere of Darkside by Visiting Artist-in-Residence John Selya, based on the Tom Stoppard radio play of the same name. Darkside incorporates music from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album and brings a visual element to a solely auditory work. The piece centers on a character named Emily, an inquisitive philosophy student who sets out on a journey to decipher the teachings of her professor and fulfill her destiny. Classically trained in ballet, Selya has danced numerous principal roles with American Ballet Theatre and Twyla Tharp Dance and is a veteran of several Broadway productions, including Tharp’s Movin’ Out, for which he received a Tony nomination. He also has taught and choreographed at universities and dance companies across the country.

The program continues with faculty member Danny Buraczeski’s acclaimed 1999 piece Ezekiel’s Wheel, inspired by the life and work of author and Civil Rights activist James Baldwin. The piece is set to a percussive musical score interspersed with passages of Baldwin’s writings. Buraczeski, a nationally known jazz dance artist and consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts, choreographed the work for his former company Jazzdance. Following its premiere at New York’s Joyce Theater, The New York Times called it “balm for the soul in troubled times.”

The program concludes with the premiere of The Hi Betty Cha-Cha by alumnus Joshua Peugh (’06), founder and director of Dark Circles Contemporary Dance. The work has five contrasting sections set to music that includes two Dean Martin songs, Senza Fine and I Wish You Love; Quartetto Cetra’s 1945 hit Crapa Pelada; Ryuichi Sakamoto’s A Flower Is not a Flower; and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass’s lively version of Zorba the Greek. Dark Circles Contemporary Dance has produced award-winning works in five countries, and Peugh was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2015.

Spring Dance Concert performance times are 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.  Tickets are $13 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7 for students, 51°µÍø faculty and staff. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 214-768-2787 or visit .