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Press Releases
For Immediate Release
June 22, 2009
For more information, contact
Virginia Campbell
(585) 395-2754
vcampbel@brockport.edu
Nationally Acclaimed Tap Artist Bill Evans in Concert at The College at Brockport
Brockport, NY—Bill Evans, named one of the country's top three tap artists by Dance Magazine, will present the First Annual Bill Evans’ Brockport Rhythm Tap/Jazz Jam at 8 pm on Thursday, July 9, in the New York Room, Cooper Hall, at The College at Brockport, where Evans is a visiting professor/guest artist in dance.
Tickets for the Bill Evans’ Brockport Rhythm Tap/Jazz Jam are $15 general admission, $10 college and secondary school students, $5 children 12 and under, and are available at the door only. Tickets go on sale at 7 pm.
Evan’s highly acclaimed performances have drawn rave reviews, including his recent performance at Rochester’s Downstairs Cabaret Theatre.
We are savoring the exceptionally stirring, inspiring, creative, informative, energetic, poetic evening you and your performers made possible. Thank you for an absolutely magnificent evening at the Downstairs Cabaret!! You are a joy to watch, pure entertainment at it's finest.
The concert also features pianist James J. Kaufmann, rhythm tap artists Courtney World and Leah Fox, and guest artist Andrea Vazquez.
The Jam includes classic rhythm tap dances performed to live jazz music as a tribute to the great Africa-American artists who created the art form, including Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Charles “Honi” Coles, Charles “Cholly” Atkins, James “Buster” Brown and Eddie Brown.
Other works include Evans’ choreography to George Gershwin’s Preludes and Horace Silver’s Song for My Father, as well as his signature a cappella pieces Blues for my Father and Yes, Indeed!
Evans is known for his dynamic range, his expressivity, musicality, and sense of humor. He has collaborated with World, Fox and Kaufmann since 2004, and they have developed a refined, elegant and highly entertaining program with a remarkable range of moods and styles.
Critics agree with Chicago Tap Theatre’s loving tribute to Evans: [69]-year-old modern-rhythmic dance barrier-breaker Bill Evans is an experience of intimate and symphonic proportions….His breadth of experience in ballet, modern and tap dance has molded Evans into a uniquely lyrical-percussive artist.
Evans also will present the Fifth Annual Bill Evans and Friends: An Intimate Evening of Contemporary Dance, at 8 pm, Saturday, July 11, in The College at Brockport’s Strasser Studio, Hartwell Hall, Utica Street. Tickets are $10 general admission, $5 college and secondary school students, and will be available at the door at 7 pm.
The evening will provide a relaxed and close-up view of a wide variety of contemporary dance styles and moods performed to a wide array of musical styles. Choreographers sharing works in the concert are Evans and Don Halquist, a visiting assistant professor at Brockport, who will perform the jointly-choreographed duet, Stand By Your Man, which depicts a light-hearted version of their 25-year personal/professional relationship to music by Patsy Cline.
The concert includes:
Kista Tucker, nationally-known choreographer and teacher, who will share a work performed by members of her Rochester-based Kista Tucker Dance Company.
Missy Pfohl Smith, who began her impressive professional career in New York City-based modern dance companies, will share a work performed by members of her Rochester-based contemporary dance company BIODANCE.
Deborah Birrane, accomplished solo artist from Seattle, who will give her premier performance of Under the Moon, By the River by acclaimed New Mexico choreographerDebra Knapp.
Joanna Cashman, director of Wild GracSamskara.
Denise Purvis, MFA in dance alumna from The College of Brockport Department of Dance and who directs a performing arts high school dance program in Midlothian, VA, will perform a new solo work.
Gabrielle Brigida, Hobart William Smith Colleges dance major from Syracuse, NY, will share the premier performance of a self-choreographed solo. ,br/>
Andrea Vazquez, from Mexico City, Mexico, and Kathleen Reagan from Oklahoma City, OK, both MFA candidates in Brockport’s Department of Dance, who will perform a collaboratively-choreographed exploration of the Japanese Butoh style.
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The College at Brockport, State University of New York
350 New Campus Drive * Brockport, New York 14420-2931
(585) 395-2754 * FAX (585) 395-2723 *
www.brockport.edu