UMBC's Department of Dance presents the Phoenix Dance Company in concert on February 12, 13, 14, and 15, 2003. All performances will be held at 8 p.m. in the UMBC Theatre.

About the Phoenix Dance Company
The venerable Phoenix Dance Company, founded in 1983, has played in venues such as the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore Theatre Project, Ohio State University, Judson Church, Goucher College, Western Maryland College, Salisbury University and Temple University. A professional company in residence at UMBC, Phoenix is co-directed by choreographers Carol Hess and Doug Hamby.

Operating at the intersection between art and technology, the Phoenix Dance Company has explored radical dance collaborations with UMBC videographers, mechanical engineers, computer programmers and visual artists, recently including Steve Bradley, an intermedia artist who has generated live computer-enhanced video images and a system for generating sounds based on dancers' movements; Tony Farquhar, a mechanical engineer who developed a spunky six-legged dancing robot (Maurice Tombé); Vin Grabill, an MIT-trained videographer; and composer Linda Dusman.

The Program
Featured on the program are the following works:

• Private Property (1995) by Carol Hess, a "duet" for dancer and cameraperson to music by Stuart Saunders Smith. The dancer's movements are captured by the camera, then manipulated and projected onto a large screen onstage. The piece, performed by Pamela Stevens and Nick Prevas, alludes to issues of privacy and surveillance.
• Bonds, an excerpt from Four Gestures by Carol Hess, which premiered in 2002. In this section, three dancers explore different interactions through inventive partnering. The dancers themselves (Mandi Brown, Evan Davidson, Eileen Mitchell) capture the piece on camera, using a variety of hand-held camera techniques. The images of the live performance are mixed (live) with an unusual combination of images of Ground Zero and nature. The music score is by composer Linda Dusman.
• A new work by Carol Hess for three dancers (Mandi Brown, Evan Davidson, Pamela Stevens) that involves intricate manipulation of sounds, as the dancers' movements interact with a "wired" setpiece to create layers of random sounds that include rings, buzzes and beeps from telephones and cellphones. Underlying these sounds is a score by Linda Dusman entitled Sorry, Your Call Did Not Go Through, a mixture of voice messages from telephone answering machines. Onstage will be an array of speakers, enabling the voice messages to come from various locations in space.
• The premiere of a new work by Doug Hamby entitled Interplay. In this quartet, the dance enlivens and intertwines the rich physical, temporal and spatial connections between the performers.
• Part One Parting, a solo choreographed by Jeanine Durning and performed by Sandra Lacy, with original electronic music by composer Chris Peck. Structured like a short story, Part One Parting follows a woman who recalls an event in her life over and over again. In this episodic solo, the dream-like sequences reflect the idea of memory and how we remember and re-experience events.

Principal Choreographers and Dancer
Choreographer and artistic director Carol Hess received a B.A. from Barnard College and an M.A. from Columbia University. Before coming to Maryland, she danced professionally in New York City, where she performed and taught in hundreds of public schools through the Young Audiences Programs and Residencies in the Schools and the Lincoln Center Touring Program. She has performed with Hannah Kahn and Dancers, the Rondo Dance Theatre, the Janet Soares Company, and as a tap soloist she has appeared on television and in concerts in the United States and Europe. As Artistic Director of the Oregon Dance Theatre, Ms. Hess, in partnership with the Carpenter Foundation, initiated a series of program and workshops in schools, in which nearly fifty schools participated. As associate professor of dance, Ms. Hess has taught at UMBC since 1982 and is currently chair of the Department of Dance, where she also directs Project REACH, an outreach program to Baltimore City and Baltimore County elementary, middle and high schools.

Doug Hamby lives and works in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. He has extensive experience as a dancer, chroeographer, and educator. In addition to his work with the Phoenix Dance Company, he is the artistic director of Doug Hamby Dance, a professional dance company in residence at UMBC. Recent collaborators include artist Timothy Nohe, intermedia artist Steve Bradley, video artist Deborah Gorski, and mechanical engineer Tony Farquhar. Hamby has performed with Martha Graham, May O'Donnell, Rachel Lampert, Elizabeth Keen, Pearl Lang, Norman Walker, the Chicago Moving Company, Phoenix Dance Company, and Hamby and Lacy. His works have been featured at Dance Place, Washington, D.C.; Riverside Dance Festival, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, and Celebrate Brooklyn, in New York City; the 1998 New York International Fringe Festival; 1997 Philadelphia Fringe Festival; and 1996 International Fringe Festivals in Edinburgh, Scotland and Vancouver, Canada. He has received choreography awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Maryland State Arts Council, New York State Council on the Arts, Arts Council of Montgomery County, Maryland, and the Baltimore Mayor's Advisory Committee on Art and Culture. He served as a dance advisory panelist for the Maryland State Arts Council for three years. He is an associate professor of dance at UMBC and holds an MFA in Dance from Temple University and a Biology degree from Michigan State University. He has also appeared on national television as a giant slice of American cheese.

Principal dancer Sandra Lacy has been the recipient of three Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in Solo Dance Performance. She holds a B.A. in psychology and is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dance in London. She has performed with Maryland Ballet, Impetus Dance Company, Path Dance Company, Lacy & Shade, and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Ms. Lacy is on the faculty of UMBC and the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Admission
General admission: $15.00.
Students and seniors: $7.00.
Box Office: 410-455-6240

Telephone
Box Office: 410-455-6240
UMBC Artsline (24 hour recorded message): 410-455-ARTS
Media inquiries only: 410-455-3370

Web
UMBC Arts website: http://www.umbc.edu/arts
UMBC Arts News Releases: http://www.umbc.edu/newsevents/oci/index.phtml?r=Art
UMBC Department of Dance website: http://www.umbc.edu/dance

Images for Media
High resolution images for media are available online: http://www.umbc.edu/newsevents/arts/hi-res/ or by email or postal mail.

Directions
From Baltimore and points north, proceed south on I-95 to exit 47B. Take Route 166 toward Catonsville and then follow signs to the Fine Arts Building.
From I-695, take Exit 12C (Wilkens Avenue) and continue one-half mile to the entrance of UMBC at the roundabout intersection of Wilkens Avenue and Hilltop Road. Turn left and follow signs to the Fine Arts Building.
From Washington and points south, proceed north on I-95 to Exit 47B. Take Route 166 toward Catonsville and then follow signs to the Fine Arts Building.
Daytime metered visitor parking is available in Lot 10, near the Administration Building. Visitor parking regulations are enforced on all University calendar days. Hilltop Circle and all campus roadways require a parking permit unless otherwise marked.

Online campus map: http://www.umbc.edu/aboutumbc/campusmap/