Mississippi: The Dance Company Presents 'In Real Time …' This Weekend

Student members of Mississippi: The Dance Company rehearse a number from ‘In Real Time …,’ which will be performed this weekend at Meek Hall Auditorium. Photo by Robert Jordan/Ole Miss Communications

The University of Mississippi’s resident modern dance company is set to perform seven works, including one that earned the troupe an invitation to a regional dance gala, this weekend in Meek Hall Auditorium.

Mississippi: The Dance Company presents “In Real Time …” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday (April 7-8) and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (April 8-9). Tickets are $12.50 for general admission, $10 for Ole Miss students and $9 for children and senior citizens, available at the UM Box Office at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts, https://olemissboxoffice.com/ or by telephone at 662-915-7411. Tickets also will be sold at Meek Hall Auditorium 30 minutes before each performance.

The concert includes “attic,” a piece choreographed by guest artist George Staib of Staib Dance Company. Staib’s work, about his experiences as a child in Iran at the beginning of the Iranian Revolution, earned the UM company an invitation to perform in the gala concert at the South Regional Conference of the American College Dance Association last month.

“Mississippi: The Dance Company has been attending ACDA since 1990 and we’ve been chosen for the gala seven times,” said Jennifer Mizenko, professor of movement and dance. “It’s always a high honor. I am very proud of these students.

“They have worked very hard and all of their work shows onstage. What you also see while watching these students dance is their passion for the art form and their deep investment in bringing this dance work ‘attic’ to life every time they perform it.”

Seven Ole Miss students participated in a five-day residency taught by Staib over Wintersession, spending five or six hours daily learning the 12-minute piece.

Forty-four dances were submitted this year to the ACDA, but “attic” was among only 12 chosen to perform at the gala.

Genevieve Walker, a senior from Vicksburg majoring in secondary English education, attended ACDA with the company for the fourth time in her Ole Miss career.

“Being able to participate in dance at Ole Miss has been one of the greatest parts of my college career,” Walker said. “Mississippi: The Dance Company works as its own family unit. George’s piece exemplified that idea.

“The adjudicators all commented on the piece’s ability showcase that connection. We are all individuals onstage, but when we dance together, we feed off of each other’s strengths.”

For more information, visit https://theatre.olemiss.edu/olemisstheatre.html#msdco.

By Christina Steube

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