FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Sarah Snyder
ssnyder3@umd.edu
301.405.8151
College Park, MD— Two third-year MFA Dance candidates in the UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies will present their thesis projects in a shared concert at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on March 12-14. Stephanie Miracle’s Pleated will take place at 7:30pm followed by Ana Patricia Farfán’s My Tempest at 9pm. Tickets for each performance are sold separately, and the artists will hold a talk back following My Tempest on March 13.
About Stephanie Miracle and Pleated
The oldest of three sisters, Stephanie Miracle grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and began choreographing dances for her sisters at a young age. Personal memories of make-believe worlds, sibling rivalries and living-room dances are reconstructed in her autobiographical work, Pleated, which explores the dynamics and complexities of growing up with sisters – gathered together and cut from the same cloth, yet still retaining their individuality.
Miracle’s choreography has been presented in New York City at Rooftop Dances, 100 Grand, Triskelion Arts and the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center. Her choreography has also been performed at Round House Theatre and Dance Place in Washington, D.C., as well as the Supernova Performance Art Festival in Virginia and the Clarice Smith Center’s Choreographers’ Showcase. As a performer, Miracle has danced for Deganit Shemy, Elizabeth Dishman, Shannon Gillen & Guests, Laura Peterson Choreography, alexan/the median movement, David Dorfman Dance, Joseph Poulson, Susan Marshall and Company, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Graham Brown, Deborah Hay and PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER.
About Ana Farfán and My Tempest
The Tempest, Shakespeare’s final play, has been a rich source of inspiration for artists and philosophers since its 1611 debut. A timeless myth, The Tempest features archetypal characters – the Wizard (Prospero), the Savage (Caliban) and the Virgin (Miranda) – who comment on the nature of power, art and individuality that guides our world.
Farfán says, “Whereas in Shakespeare’s play the characters in some way talk through the lens of Prospero, it was important to me that each character presented their own tempest in their own voice and gesture.” In My Tempest, Prospero, the wise man; Miranda, the subjugated woman and Caliban, the oppressed join Ariel, Ferdinand, Iris-Ceres and a chorus to explore a complex world and its dialogues about the relationship between the self and the other. The performance features live music composed by Jorge Alberto Bueno.
Farfán, a Fulbright Fellow, is a Mexican choreographer and writer who studied Concert Dance at the Academia de la Danza Mexicana, National Institute of Fine Arts, and Linguistics and Literature at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico. She was the recipient of a Partnership for the Excellence in the Performing Arts fellowship from the University of Maryland in 2011 and 2012. Farfán is the founder and editor of the dance research journal Centrifuga and recently wrote a chapter for The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Ethnicity.
Tickets
More information about Pleated and My Tempest can be found on our website. Tickets for Pleated and My Tempest are sold separately for $15 regular/$5 students and can be reserved online. Buy a ticket to both performances for $25.
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Located on the University of Maryland campus and a part of the College of Arts and Humanities, the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) is a dynamic community of artist-scholars who advance and transform the research and practice of their art forms. The School is committed to collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship. TDPS, the School of Music and Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library share a space within the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, a premier presenting arts venue and collaborative laboratory for professional artists, teachers and students, serving the university and community.
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. An agency of the Department of Business & Economic Development, the MSAC provides financial support and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations, units of government, colleges and universities for arts activities. Funding for the Maryland State Arts Council is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.