On Saturday, April 14, UNC Charlotte dance students will perform at New York City’s 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, a venue of tremendous importance for dance both historically and currently (Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, and Merce Cunningham are among the many storied dancers who have performed there). The students will perform works by Associate Professor of Dance Gretchen Alterowitz, senior dance major Anna Edwards, and 92Y Artist in Residence Netta Yerushalmy. The program, College is Not a Dry Run, will also feature students from the University of Massachusetts.
Yerushalmy was in residence in the dance department at UNC Charlotte in January, during which she created a new work, RONT, especially for UNC Charlotte students. That piece and Alterowitz’s contemporary ballet, the bend, were both performed on the Spring Dance Concert in March. Edwards originally created her piece Shadows of Injustice, based on the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898, for the Sarus Festival in Wilmington, NC. It has been reworked for the 92nd Street Y program.
The performance experience on April 14 is part of a New York City field study, during which dance students will take professional classes, attend concerts, and meet with alumni working in New York.