Dear UI Dance community and audience members,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to Dances Described, an evening of four dance works performed by the UI Dance Company. Since 1984, we have been offering students an opportunity to present high caliber, innovative dance performances to audiences across Iowa in a variety of settings. The UI Dance Company believes dance can provoke awe, inspire joy, stimulate thought, and create new perspectives. Our mission is to create meaningful connections with the community through the creation of new choreography for Space Place Theater, public touring engagements, workshops, lecture-demonstrations, and site-specific interventions.   

This ‘23/’24 season the company has focused on themes of accessibility and adaptability. One way we considered access is through incorporation Audio Description into this entire program. Audio Description is a tool for making visual or physical elements of an art experience more accessible to all audiences but specifically those with blindness or low vision. BFA senior Cami Rezabek received an Office of Undergraduate Research award to work with the company on writing and performing the descriptions in this program. 

In the performance you will have the opportunity to experience one work with “open” descriptions, meaning the text is fully integrated into the performance, and three works with “closed” descriptions, optional listening with a personal device and headphones during the performance.

We want to thank Susan Rollinger, Crystal Beighley, and all the teachers and students from the Expanded Learning Program of the Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired for their partnership with us in this endeavor. 

Adaptability, as a companion theme, can be seen through resiliency of our dancers in their capacity to shift between choreographic styles and processes. We have also considered this theme in relation to our mission to tour works across the region, which requires us to transform these works to fit a variety of nontraditional performances spaces. 

I want to take a moment to acknowledge and thank the people who have made this show possible. To every dancer in the company for their creativity, commitment, and triumphant growth throughout this multifaceted process, to Aaron Samuel Davis, Christopher Rasheem McMillan, and Katelyn Perez for contributing works to this program. To Sophia McLaughlin and Cami Rezabek for bringing such integrity in to each rehearsal. And to all the designers, the production team, and our dance department for providing opportunities such as this to our students. 

We are so glad you are with us this evening. May this experience resonate with you, inspire conversations, and spark an appreciation for the limitless possibilities that lie within dance.

With gratitude and anticipation,

Stephanie Miracle, Artist Director of UIDC ‘23 - ‘24