ONLINE: Kloepper Concert

press release: The UW-Madison Dance Department presents the annual Kloepper Concert, a live-stream event of new student work from eleven student choreographers, including Elizabeth D'Auria, Sally Eberlein, Olivia Hintz, Amanda Kolsch, Jackson Neal, Oluwabusola Osundairo, Taylor Rosenthal, Brooke Schroeder, Peighton Strasburg, Tye Trondson, Rakhi Winston, and the First Year Workshop. 

The works have been scheduled in three separate programs and will be presented live Saturday, November 21 at 2:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 22 at 2:30 p.m. on the department's YouTube channel. Topics explored in these works, which are a mix of solo, ensemble and screen dance works, include dance as a force of social change, internal/external conflict, what it means to be quiet, blame, control and personal responsibility, queer shame/queer desire and the issue of constantly working and working hard. 

PERFORMANCES

Program I: SAT NOV 21 at 2:30 p.m. - Livestream link

Program II: SAT NOV 21 at 8:00 p.m - Live stream link

Program III: SUN NOV 22 at 2:30 p.m. - Livestream link

Free & open to the public

The ensemble piece from the First Year Workshop is a collaborative work from first-year dance degree students directed by Karen McShane Hellenbrand, faculty associate of the Dance Department.

ABOUT THE KLOEPPER CONCERT

This studio concert is named for Louise Kloepper, former chair of the Dance Department. Kloepper came to the UW in 1942 to study dance, after almost a decade teaching and dancing with the Hanya Holm School and Company. In 1942, she was the first dance professional admitted as a dance student at the UW-Madison campus. The same year she graduated, in 1946, she became an assistant professor at UW-Madison. Kloepper was a distinguished teacher of dance technique and composition, serving as artistic director and producer for many faculty-student presentations. She chaired the program for several years and was a professor of dance until she retired in 1975.

Professor Emerita Anna Nassif said Kloepper was a humanist who followed the ideas of John Dewey and Margaret H'Doubler, someone who put her faith in each student's ability and talent to grow into a teacher, artist, therapist by his or her own effort and motivation. This studio concert of student works is aptly named, as it represents an opportunity for creative growth for students in a space Studio 549, Lathrop Hall dedicated to Kloepper.