The Moorpark College Dance Department presents Speaking Movement as a long-awaited and triumphant return to the PAC Main Stage theater. The varied program celebrates faculty and student choreographers as they navigate ever-evolving social dynamics of our communities and relationships while reflecting intimately on our human experience. From funky and fun to poignant and provocative, this performance gives voice to the company of dance artists navigating the next stage of being together in shared spaces after being in isolation for over a year. Come enjoy an evening of meaningful movement for a new world as we form new entry points into our hearts and minds.

Choreographers include faculty members Vivian Goldes, Beth Megill, Nancy Paradis, and Robert Salas in works ranging from contemporary to tap. Student choreographers, Abby Armbruster, Emmy Ham, Morpheus Kostromin, Briana Kurth, Ethan Rieder, Madison Roter, Tatyana Pena are excited to return to making art for a live audience. 

Artistic Director Beth Megill articulates, “Coming back into the theater feels like home. Our PAC Main Stage is such a gift to our department and our community. The space, the lighting, the floor, the seating. . . never again will we take for granted these amazing components for sharing our art, and we hope the audience will feel equal gratitude when they attend the performance.”

We invite our community to come to campus to enjoy the magic of dance again on the Moorpark College Main Stage!

Tickets available online www.moorparkcollege.edu/pac. Please contact Beth Megill with additional programmatic questions.  bmegill@vcccd.edu

Performance Information

November 12-13, 2021 at 7:30pm

Tickets: $15 

Box office: 805-378-1485

Square image of three women intertwined in dance

Important COVID safety information can be found on the Moorpark Performing Arts Center website. www.moorparkcollege.edu/pac

 

Program Preview

 

Static

Student choreographer, Abby Armbruster, uses ensemble shapes to generate amoebic designs in space tied together with detailed articulations of the body in intricate rhythms. 

 

Back in place.

Morpheus Kostromin returns as a student choreographer with a piece about the human desire to endure amidst a world of numbness and sorrow. 

 

The Other Side

Veteran faculty choreographer, Vivian Goldes, offers a beautiful balletic work that highlights grace and flow as it evokes images of connection and ensemble after a time of separation and isolation. 

 

The Man

Returning student choreographer, Madison Roter, shares a dance of recovery and empowerment from an all too common trauma experienced by women around the world. Mature content. 

 

L’attraction de la Lune (the pull of the moon)

Faculty choreographer, Nancy Paradis, evokes images of beauty in a lyrical blend set to improvisational piano by Frederick Keeve. 

 

Cognitive Thoughts

Emmy Ham makes her debut as a student choreographer on the MC stage in a contemporary piece about coping with anxiety. 

 

For the Culture 

Student choreographer, Tatyana Peña, pays homage to her heritage in a celebration of Black culture in America that grooves through a blend of social and concert dance styles rooted in the Africanist aesthetics. 

 

Last One Standing 

Artistic Director, Beth Megill, employs the whole cast, in an epic story of tribal warfare that calls our awareness to the destructive nature of infighting as we grasp for power. 

 

Blind Spots

Student choreographer, Ethan Rieder, makes his debut work at Moorpark College with a quartet about domestic strife and toxic homelife.

 

And So it Goes

Student choreographer, Brianna Kurth, explores nostalgia in a piece with sweeping designs in time and space. 

 

Home 

A reflective contemporary dance piece by faculty member, Robert Salas, reflects on the nature of family dynamics as bonds for life.

 

Keep cool. Keep on.  

This upbeat and groovy tap dance by faculty choreographer and artistic director, Beth Megill, will make you bob along and tap your feet in a closing number that is sure to please.