Brigham Young University’s Department of Dance will present “Buckaroo: Cowboy Poetry in Motion” during the dancEnsemble winter concert Friday and Saturday, March 22-23, at 7:30 p.m. in the Richards Building Dance Studio Theatre. A special Buckaroo Ball Dance Party will be held after Friday night’s performance in 2006 Richards Building.
Funded in part by the Laycock Center for Creative Collaboration in the Arts in the College of Fine Arts and Communications, “Buckaroo” will feature cowboy poets Paul Bliss, Jerry Brooks and Dan Bradshaw. Live music under the direction of Mark Geslison will be featured at both performances. Special guest Hot Club of Cowtown will also be featured Friday night only and will also play at the Buckaroo Ball on Friday night.
Tickets for the concert are $6 and are available at the Fine Arts Ticket Office, (801) 422-7664 or at byuarts.com/tickets. Tickets for the dance party are $6 in advance and $8 at the door.
The concert will be divided into four parts, each focusing on a different aspect of what it means to be a cowboy. Part One, “A Cowboy’s Persona and Values,” will include “Legends” choreographed by Marilyn Berrett, “Cowboy 101: Lesson One” by Chelsey McNeil and Kacey Schneider, “Women of the West” choreographed by dancEnsemble Artistic Director Pam Musil, and “Love Beyond Riches by Anna Schiess and dancers.
Part Two, “Cowboy Culture,” features lessons two and three of “Cowboy 101,” “His, Hers, and Ours” by Allie Limas and Marcy Vance, “I Am From…” by Amy Gunter and Katelynn Reed and “At the Buckaroo Ball” by Marilyn Berrett, Pam Musil and dancers.
The third part of the concert, “A Cowboy’s Relationships,” will include “First Love” by Chelsea Alley and Lacie Norton, “Way Back When” by Camille Monson and dancers, “My Buddy and Me” by Mindy Michaels and Joshua Mora, and lesson four of “Cowboy 101.” The final portion of the concert features the final exam of “Cowboy 101,” “Cottonwood” and “Commutin’” by Nathan Balser, followed by the recitation of cowboy poetry.
The modern dance-based dancEnsemble focuses on original student choreography that expresses a range of moods, emotions and ideas.
Hot Club of Cowtown is a western swing trio band from Texas that came together in the late 1990s. Since their formation they have gained a worldwide following touring with artists such as Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, appearing in international folk festivals and touring for the U.S. State Department as musical ambassadors to Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Republic of Georgia and the Sultanate of Oman. They have released numerous albums, including an upcoming album, “Rendezvous in Rhythm,” due to be released in May 2013.
For more information, contact Ken Crossley at (801) 422-9348, ken_crossley@byu.edu.
Writer: Preston Wittwer
