From the Studio to the Stage

NC State dancers and choreographers have been hard at work preparing for their two fall performances. Each piece has gone through its own unique rehearsal process, from multi-day-long residencies with guest artists to spending hours rehearsing in the studio or even a museum.

Keep reading to learn more about all of the works that will be featured in Terrain Dance Project’s upcoming performance at the Gregg Museum of Art + Design and the 2024 Fall Dance Concert. Information about each performance is available below.

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Student Choreographers

NC State dance students have the chance to choreograph and present original works in the Fall Dance Concert. This year, there are four student choreographers, two of which are recipients of this year’s Creative Artist Award in choreography.

Quiet Truth ︱ Layla El-Khoury

Inspired by her own experiences of how trust between people shifts over time, Layla El-Khoury’s Quiet Truth explores the silence surrounding you when the truth is revealed. Although this is her first year as a Creative Artist Award recipient, this is her third time presenting a piece in a formal concert. Quiet Truth includes a cast of three dancers: 2024 Performing Artist Award recipient Kloe Tucker, 2022 and 2024 Creative Artist Award recipient Kara Pawlowski, and the choreographer herself.

“I knew this piece was going to hold a special meaning for me, but I didn’t expect to love it this much,” says El-Khoury. “The reason that I think this is my favorite piece I’ve done is because of Kara and Kloe. My rehearsals have been the highlight of my week.”

Pleading With the Stars ︱ Kara Pawlowski

“Can regret fester if you believe that fate and destiny guide you?”

That is the question that Pleading With the Stars by Kara Pawlowski poses. The piece centers around the idea that fate guides our decisions and paths in life and harps on the idea of missed opportunities and regret. These themes are explored choreographically in how the four dancers performing the piece do or do not interact with one another.

This is Pawlowski’s third staged piece and second year as a Creative Artist Award recipient. She first received the award in 2022 for her first piece, Complexities of Loneliness.

Disguised as Enchantment ︱ Savanah Buck

Savanah Buck’s Disguised as Enchantment is based on the myth in European folklore that fairy rings were caused by beautiful fairies dancing in a circle, and if a human were to step in one, they would be trapped and forced to dance until the point of exhaustion. This folktale is used as a metaphor for how dance can lure one in with its beauty, but ultimately result in an addiction to the art that creates a toxic relationship with yourself and others that you can’t escape.

This will be the second piece Buck has brought to the stage. Last year, she received the Creative Artist Award in choreography and earned recognition for her first staged piece, Could you hold the line?, at the American College Dance Association (ACDA) Mid-Atlantic Conference in the spring of 2024.

Within Her Mind ︱ Madison Kotyra

Choreographed by Madison Kotyra, Within Her Mind explores one’s mental health, support system, and internal relationship with one’s own struggles.

This is the fourth time Kotyra has choreographed at NC State. While her three previous works were upbeat, tap dances, Within Her Mind is a modern dance piece. This piece displays the ongoing cyclical nature of working on one’s mental wellness and is informed by the personal experiences of the choreographer’s own work toward a better mental state.

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Panoramic Dance Project

Panoramic Dance Project invited Matthew Shields and Zach Ingram to each set a piece on members of the company. The company will present both pieces in the Fall Dance Concert. Between the two works, the company’s dancers will have the chance to showcase their skills across a full range of styles.

Jumpin’ Jack ︱ Matthew Shields

Jumpin’ Jack is a dynamic blend of athleticism and artistry. It showcases a diverse group of dancers with unique skill sets and multiple styles of dance. The choreographer’s passion for tap, swing, jazz, and jazz music shines through in this joyful and exhilarating work.

The lively, upbeat sounds of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy provide the perfect soundtrack, capturing the essence of early-era jazz nostalgia. This piece promises to keep audiences on the edge of their seats as the dancers energetically run, jump, jive, tap and swing through this wild and entertaining choreography. 

Jumpin Jack will be performed in the Fall Dance Concert and will return in the Panoramic Dance Project’s spring concert, scheduled for March 20 and 21, 2025, in Stewart Theatre.

The Other Current ︱ Zach Ingram

Zach Law Ingram is from Miami, Florida, and graduated from the New World School of the Arts in New York City. During his formative years of dance training, Ingram attended the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Miami City Ballet, and The Ailey School in New York City to study several dance techniques: Classical Ballet, Horton, Graham-based Modern, Jazz, West African, Dunham, and Hip-Hop. Ingram started his professional career with Alvin Ailey’s Second Company (Ailey II) and later became a founding member of Space T.U. Embrace project. Ingram has received numerous choreographic and artistic awards, including a Gold Medalist Award for the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts (NFAA) and the U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts.

Ingram came to NC State to set his piece The Other Current on the Panoramic Dance Project in October 2024. Similar to his training and professional career, Ingram’s The Other Current features a fusion of many different dance styles—such as ballet, modern, jazz and hip-hop. It is a large group piece that features all of the Panoramic Dance Project dancers performing in the fall concert. Audiences can expect a dance full of jumps, turns, and an overall fierce performance.

The Other Current will be performed in the Fall Dance Concert and will return in the Panoramic Dance Project’s spring concert, scheduled for March 20 and 21, 2025, in Stewart Theatre.

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State Dance Company

Audiences will see two State Dance Company works in the upcoming Fall Dance Concert. Guest artist Kassandra Taylor Newberry set one piece on the company during an August residency, and another is a work-in-progress showing of a piece by dance faculty member Tara Z. Mullins.

There It Is ︱ Kassandra Taylor Newberry

There It Is by Kassandra Taylor Newberry is a quirky and enjoyable experience for the audience. It is full of personality and quick, intricate movements that showcase Newberry’s unique movement style and keen sense of musicality. And did we mention that the dancers are wearing sunglasses for the whole piece?

This is the second piece that Newberry has set on the State Dance Company. She first came to NC State in 2021 to set her piece “Ah…I See!” on the company. She returned for another three-day residency in August to set There It Is on the nine dancers performing in the piece. Department staff member and State Dance Company alumni LilyGrace Wolfe (’22) also returned to the dance studio to serve as Newberry’s rehearsal assistant. Wolfe has continued to direct rehearsals for the piece to ensure that it will be show-ready.

“I met Kassandra when I was about 11 years old, and she remains one of my biggest influences and role models,” explains Wolfe. “To have even a small role in bringing her work to the stage has been such a meaningful, full-circle experience.”

There It Is will be performed in the Fall Dance Concert and will return in the State Dance Company spring concert on April 3 and 4, 2025, in Stewart Theatre.

Reckless: A Tale of Scylla and Charybdis (WORK IN PROGRESS) ︱ Tara Z. Mullins

Reckless: A Tale of Scylla and Charybdis is a work in progress exploring themes from the myth of the Strait of Messina. What does it mean to be stuck between a rock and a hard place? What does it mean to try to fit in, even if it compromises your integrity? This at times campy, at times absurd, piece intends to both entertain the audience and challenge their perceptions of their own moral compass.

Reckless: A Tale of Scylla and Charybdis will be performed in the Fall Dance Concert and will be further developed and performed again in the State Dance Company Concert on April 3 and 4, with added production elements, including film.

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Terrain Dance Project

Terrain Dance Project has been preparing a collection of works, which they will present at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design, and a screendance that will be featured in the Fall Dance Concert.

Woven through ︱ Jill Guyton Nee

Woven through is a navigational dance work that plays with the vibrant fabrics in the Gregg Museum of Art & Design. The choreographic movement was generated by the choreographer and performers—through both literal gestures and abstract concepts of how humans make, dye, sew, patch, and wear clothing. The performers delve into the ideas of needling, weaving, threading, and more in the site-specific dancing dedicated to the Gregg.

past is present ︱ Harper Piver

Harper Piver (BFA, MFA) is a choreographer and movement educator who has created choreography for stage, screen, immersive environments, music videos, and outdoor sites, including three evening-length compositions. Her screendance works have been shown in international film festivals, and her choreography has been commissioned and presented by companies, festivals, and academic institutions around the US.

Piver’s work, past is present, explores textiles as both “narratives of daily life” (from exhibition info) and sacred. The piece explores the physical acts of making these textiles and the artifacts left behind and embodiments the persistence of life and work through time as a shared human, global experience.

Untitled work ︱ Amy Beasley

Both current exhibitions at the Gregg Museum, Material Messages, and Babenga spoke to me for their skillful artisanship, vision, intricacies, and resourcefulness. What moves me most about these exhibits is the powerful presence of humanity felt in the space with the pieces and objects- they spark my imagination about relationships (human and spiritual), community, and shared meaning-making.

“I created two duet ‘interludes’ for this performance that speak to that curiosity and explore how connections surface, how self and other overlap, and how we make things together,” described Beasley. “These short dances include set choreography and improvisation, using reflections, mirroring, delicate and weighty partnerships, and spontaneous discovery to materialize our movement response to the artwork.”

Constructing Place ︱ Autumn Mist Belk

A quartet of dancers join in the grand entryway of the Gregg Museum, carving out space to perform Constructing Place, an excerpt adapted from Belk’s 2013 evening-length work, Finding Place. Finding Place began in response to an exhibition of work by El Anatsui at the NC Museum of Art during that time period, and the work was first performed in the museum before expanding into a full concert performance. 

“Viewing the Babenga exhibition at the Gregg reminded me of the process I undertook crafting Finding Place,” explained Belk. “I was excited to rework a portion of this choreography in response to a new site (that of the Gregg).”

Belk is also working with Terrain dancers on two screendance projects inspired by objects from the Gregg’s permanent collection. One of these projects utilizes motion capture technology to transform the dancers into “art-object avatars” for a web-based performance while the other follows more traditional dance filming approaches to craft a screendance for future on-campus and film festival screenings.

Collections ︱ Terrain Dance Project

Directed by Autumn Mist Belk and edited by guest artist Hannah Fischer, Collections is a new screendance created from the choreography (by Belk and Amy Love Beasley) of Terrain Dance Project’s inaugural performance last spring at CAM Raleigh. The Fall Dance Concert marks the world premiere of the completed screendance, which will travel to film festivals in the months to come.

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Sneak Peek of our Fall Dance Performances

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