The Department of Dance presents the Spring Dance Showcase, featuring capstone work by senior student Deven Fuller, new ballet repertory by faculty member Brandon Russell, and works by First Works students.

In a presentation by the Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA), UMBC assistant professor of dance Ann Sofie Clemmensen will speak about her new series of short cinematic dance-for-camera works that communicate on a sensory, visual, and kinetic level new perspectives on the work being done by researchers at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) to protect and preserve healthy marine ecosystems. She will be joined by Allen R. Place and Vikram Vakharia, whose research data she brought into visual form using the moving body and cinematography.

BLACK HOLE — Trilogy And Triathlon is a multidisciplinary performance choreographed by the award-winning movement artist Shamel Pitts, co-created and performed by his Brooklyn-based arts collective TRIBE. BLACK HOLE constitutes the final installment of Pitts’s “BLACK Series” triptych. Deeply inspired and infused by the spirit of Afrofuturism, this contemporary Gesamtkunstwerk combines dance, original sound, video projection, and light design in a tale of vitality and tenderness, darkness and light, personal growth and collective empowerment.

The Department of Dance presents the Fall Dance Showcase, featuring a new repertory work by Brandon Russell and five senior capstone works that explore the past, present, and future of the human experience through movement.

Known for presenting works of technical precision, joyful ease, dramatic relevance, and playful unpredictability, Baltimore Dance Project presents a diverse program of eight thrilling works, from tap and contemporary dance to poetry and spoken word. The evening also includes Infinite Transformations, an immersive multi-disciplinary installation that can be experienced prior to the performances.

Join us for a special evening with Misty Copeland, the first African American female Principal Dancer with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre and New York Times best selling author. In conversation with Kimberly R. Moffitt, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at UMBC, Copeland will explore a variety of topics related to dance and her career. The evening will open with three works performed by UMBC dance students.

The Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents choreographer, performer, and video artist Makini, who will discuss his creative work, based between traditional lands of the Tutelo-Saponi speaking peoples and lands of the Lenape peoples. He will explore a new body of work, tentatively titled terrestrial.

The Department of Dance presents the annual First Works Concert, featuring new works by dance majors.