Spring Dance Concert, March 11-15

DALLAS (SMU) – Three exciting contemporary works, including two world premieres by SMU Jazz Artist-in-Residence Mark Burrell and San Francisco Bay Area choreographer Joe Goode and the revival of an acclaimed work by award-winning artist Adam Hougland, will be presented at SMU Meadows School of the Arts’ Spring Dance Concert, March 11-15 in the Bob Hope Theatre at SMU.

The concert opens with the premiere of Joe Goode’s Notes on Becoming. A Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, Goode is a choreographer, writer and director widely known as an innovator in the field of dance for his willingness to combine movement with spoken word, song and imagery. His Joe Goode Performance Group, founded in 1986, has toured the world with a mission of promoting understanding and compassion through dance and theater.

Next on the program is the haunting and disturbing Cripple and the Starfish (2014) by nationally acclaimed choreographer Adam Hougland. Set to a quintet of orchestral pop songs by the group Antony and the Johnsons, this enigmatic and powerfully visceral work is, in the words of Tulsa World dance critic Jim Watts, “One of the most emotionally shattering experiences I’ve had in a theater.” Hougland, whose honors include the Princess Grace Award for Choreography, is resident choreographer for the Cincinnati Ballet and principal choreographer for the Louisville Ballet, and has created works for major companies in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

The concert concludes with the premiere of Mark Burrell’s From the OTHER Side. The work explores spatial architecture, seductive innuendo and virtuosic athleticism while exposing the human narratives of tolerance, deception and illusion. Burrell, a veteran of the Broadway stage who performed in Pippin, Cats and Fosse, is a supporter of numerous human rights groups and said he hopes the work will help engender conversations surrounding the LGBTQ+ community on acceptance and inclusivity in contemporary society.

The Spring Dance Concert takes place in the Bob Hope Theatre in SMU’s Owen Arts Center, 6101 Bishop Blvd., Dallas 75205. Performance times are 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $14 for adults, $11 for seniors and $8 for students, SMU faculty and staff. Free parking is available in the Meadows School parking lot at Hillcrest and Binkley or in the garage under the Meadows Museum. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 214-768-2787.