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February 1, 2003

Choreographer Jeanine Durning to Perform at UMBC

Dancer Jeanine Durning, currently artist-in-residence at UMBC, brings her company to the UMBC Theatre on February 5. The program features Durning's newest work, half URGE, which explores the human dynamic of desire and the attempts to fulfill those desires through relationships and interactions.

half URGE was inspired by Durning's dream about being abandoned in an unnamed, desolate city that was crumbling and collapsing. She began working on the piece by writing a series of narrative passages based on typical anxiety dreams -- flying that turns into falling, swimming that turns into drowning, climbing stairs that suddenly collapse, being abandoned or losing one's way. The writings all referred to structures or constructs that are created to provide a sense of comfort and freedom, a sense of safety and stability that are then shifted against the initial desire.

Durning then used improvisation to develop movement based around simple word ideas such as collapse or incomplete. She allowed time for the dancers to investigate the words through movement, physical interaction and behavior. Through this process, Durning created a dance that amplifies our desire to control that which is inevitably beyond control.

Dubbed by Jennifer Dunning of the New York Times as "choreographer to watch for," Durning is dedicated to her ongoing research of movement, which includes ballet, Release Technique, Alexander Technique, Pilates, Yoga and Contact Improvisation. She is interested in drawing from and bringing together those movement methodologies, as well as invited modalities in her work as a dancer/performer and in her work as a choreographer. Her artistic mission is to offer a multi-layered experience to the viewer in which boundaries of literal and linear interpretation are extended.

Durning's choreography has been presented in New York at Dance Theater Workshop, at St. Mark's Church, Movement Research at Judson Church, Central Park SummerStage, among other venues, and as part of the Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out series. Her choreography has been recognized with commissions from the Jerome Foundation through Dance Theater Workshop's Bessie Schönberg/First Light Commissioning program and Danspace Project's Commissioning Initiative.

Admission to the concert is $15 general, $7 students/seniors. For reservations and information call the Box Office at (410) 455-6240. The event is sponsored by UMBC's InterArts and the Department of Dance. For information on other upcoming dance events, click here.

Posted by dwinds1 at February 1, 2003 12:00 AM