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'Constructions,' a Performance in Two Media, Combines Dance, Sculpture

Story posted March 27, 2008

Constructions1.jpg
Photo by Alex Cornell du Houx.

The Bowdoin College Department of Theater and Dance will present Constructions, the 37th Annual Spring Dance Performance, in Wish Theater, Memorial Hall, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, April 9 through April 12, 2008, with a Saturday, April 12, matinee at 3 p.m.

Constructions is a unique collaboration between dance faculty and students, and the sculpture of Wade Kavanaugh, a member of the Bowdoin class of 2001.

Kavanaugh has created 158 handmade plywood I-beams varying in lengths from 16 inches to 96 inches. Fitted together they form a perfect stack 4 feet wide x 8 feet deep x 4 feet tall. Scattered, the wooden beams form a mound, as if washed ashore by the tide; placed on end they evoke a small forest; flat, they transform themselves into a staircase. Steel I-beams are the predominant structural element in the Wish Theater space. The crafted plywood replicas resonate visually in the stark black-box theater, yet their light color and softer texture create a sense of warmth.

Constuctions2.jpg
Photo by Alex Cornell du Houx

Choreographers Paul Sarvis and Gwyneth Jones and the 21 dancers in this semester's three dance repertory classes explore multiple spatial possibilities in a seamless overlapping series of Constructions dances. The dances, like the configurations of sculptural forms, play with three dimensionality, weight and rhythm. Lively music accompanying the "moving installation" includes techno pop and found sounds.

The performances are free and open to the public. No tickets are required. Seating is limited. For more information visit the Theater and Dance calendar.

Constructions, a performance in two media, lasts under one hour.

Wade Kavanaugh has taught sculpture at Bowdoin, and this spring is a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, N.H. His most recent show, "Regrade," can be seen at Suyama Space in Seattle, Wash. He is originally from Winthrop, Maine.

Constructions is produced with assistance from the Alice Cooper Morse Fund for the Performing Arts and the Friends of Bowdoin Fund.

A reception will be held in Drake Lobby on April 12 after the evening performance.

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