Press Releases

For Immediate Release
March 11, 2010

For more information, contact
Cherise Oakley
(585) 395-2754
coakley@brockport.edu

Bill Evans Celebrates 70th Birthday in Two Dance Concerts

Bill Evans

Brockport, NY — Bill Evans, visiting professor/guest artist in the Department of Dance at The College at Brockport will celebrate a milestone birthday with two performances of Bill Evans: 70! on Saturday, April 10, 2010, at 7:30 pm and Sunday, April 11, 2010, at 2 pm. The performances will be held in the Rose L. Strasser Studio, Hartwell Hall, Kenyon Street. A reception will follow the Sunday matinee performance.

Tickets are $12 General, $10/Seniors, College at Brockport Alumni, Faculty and Staff and $8/Students and are available by phone at (585) 395-ARTS or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office, 180 Holley Street, Brockport. Tickets may also be available at the Box Office in Hartwell Hall one hour prior to each performance.

The performances will mark not only the beginning of his eighth decade, but will honor the lives of his mother, Lila Snape Evans, who passed away (at age 97)on December 11, 2009, and his “dance mother” Margaret Gisolo, who passed away in November, 2009. In addition, he will recognize his mentor Daniel Nagrin (a former guest artist in residence at The College at Brockport) who passed away in December, 2008. A work in the concert will be dedicated to each of these powerful influences in Evans’ life and work:

• “Three Preludes for Lila” is a suite of three solo rhythm tap dances fused with Evans’ unique lyrical style of modern dance to music by George Gershwin.

• “Tribute to Daniel” is jazz-inspired modern dance quoting passages from Nagrin’s “Jazz Three Ways,” which Evans performed on national and international tours for more than two decades.

• “Multiple Margaret” is a new work to music by Anton Dvořák, performed by Don Halquist (Evans’ life and professional partner of almost 26 years), Mariah Maloney and Heather Roffe.

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Evans and Halquist will perform the world premier of “In Gloves,” by renowned New York City-based choreographer Claire Porter. This humorous interweaving of text and movement examines aspects of a long-term relationship.

Also on the program will be “Velorio: A Vigil for the Deceased,” which received its Rochester premiere by the Bill Evans Dance Company in September 2009, and which will be performed by Heather Acomb, Kathy Diehl, Devon Monin, Suzanne Oliver, Leanne Rinelli, Andrea Vazquez, Cadence Whittier and Courtney World. Completing the program will be “Blues for My Father,” with vocal rhythms by James J. Kaufmann and foot and body percussion by Evans.

Evans has been artistic director, choreographer and a performer in the Bill Evans Dance Company since its founding in 1975. He is also distinguished professor emeritus at the University of New Mexico. He has earned the Guggenheim Fellowship, numerous fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the National Dance Education Lifetime Achievement Award and many other recognitions for his five decades of leadership in the fields of modern dance, rhythm tap dance and Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis. In the most recent Dance Magazine readers’ poll, he was named one of America’s favorite three tap artists (along with Savion Glover and Brenda Bufalino). In May 2010, he will receive an honorary degree from the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. His company was at one time the most booked professional dance troupe in the US. His work as a dancer/teacher/ choreographer has taken him to all 50 states and throughout Canada and Mexico as well as 20 other countries. For seven years, he served as major resident choreographer and (for six years) artistic coordinator for the ground-breaking Salt Lake City based Repertory Dance Theatre, and he now serves on that renowned company’s national advisory board.

A modified version of this concert will be performed on May 19 in Winnipeg, MB, where Evans has been a permanent guest artist at the School of Contemporary Dancers since 1983, and on June 25 and 26 in Albuquerque, NM, where Evans and Halquist were based for 16 years. Visit www.billevansdance.org for more information.

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Photo credits: 1: Bill Evans celebrates dance and his birthday in “Bill Evans: 70!” at The College at Brockport on April 10 and 11, 2010. Photo by Jim Dusen 2: Bill Evans celebrates dance and his birthday in “Bill Evans: 70!” at The College at Brockport on April 10 and 11, 2010. Photo by Kevin Colton 3: Bill Evans celebrates dance and his birthday in “Bill Evans: 70!” (along with Don Halquist, top) at The College at Brockport on April 10 and 11, 2010. Photo by Jim Dusen 4: Bill Evans celebrates dance and his birthday in “Bill Evans: 70!” (along with Don Halquist, right) at The College at Brockport on April 10 and 11, 2010. Photo by Jim Dusen

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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