One piece selected for national festival in Washington, D.C.
Brigham Young University’s Dancers’ Company won the honor of performing the opening and closing pieces at the gala for the American College Dance Festival Adjudication for the Northwest Region March 8-10 in Laramie, Wyo.
Out of 40 dances presented before professionals at the conference featuring dance companies from more than 30 universities and colleges, only 11 were chosen for performance at the concert on the last night of the festival.
A student-choreographed work, “Deux Chaises,” by Rachel Kirk Terrazas opened the gala. The piece, danced by Taralee Carlson and Whitney Wheadon, was also one of the three dances chosen to be performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. at the national festival.
“Rachel is an outstanding choreographer, and the adjudicators called her duet ‘a perfect miniature,’ as it takes place in a small space with two chairs and only two dancers,” said Dancers’ Company director Rebecca Phillips. “It was created as a reflection on Rachel and her relationship with her mother.”
“Do Not Remove Under Penalty of Law,” by BYU faculty choreographer Pat Debenham, was the finale of the gala. In the creative and humorous number, BYU dancers jumped and rolled onto colorful mattresses.
“To have both of our dances selected for the gala is an honor that rarely happens at an adjudication festival,” Phillips said. “The Dancers’ Company represented BYU as they danced with skill, integrity and light, contrasting with some of the other universities’ dark and angst-ridden performances.”
Writer: Angela Fischer
