Bates dance program hosts choreographers from Portland, Boston

Members of the Massachusetts-based troupe Weber Dance perform at Bates on Saturday.

Members of the Massachusetts-based troupe Weber Dance perform at Bates on Saturday.

The Bates College dance program hosts Home and Away, a performance featuring dance program director Carol Dilley and colleagues from Portland and Boston, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 26, in Bates’ Marcy Plavin Studio Theater, on the second floor of Merrill Gymnasium, 141 Russell St.

The program includes work by Dilley and her frequent creative partner, Portland choreographer Jill Eng, and by Jody Weber, a dance teacher and choreographer whose company Weber Dance is a familiar presence on Boston stages.

The event is open to the public at no cost. Parking is in the Merrill Gym lot on Russell Street between Central Avenue and Lafayette Street. For more information, please call 207-786-8294.

Dilley, Eng and Bates music professor James Parakilas will present a new work in a program hosted by Weber Dance at the Green Street Studios in Cambridge, Mass., next month.

This weekend’s event represents a spirit of collaboration and community-building typical of Bates. “Jody and I have enjoyed sharing programs on a number of levels over the last three years,” says Dilley.

“Our students have alternated hosting each other for informal shared showings at Bates and in Boston, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to share our professional choreographic work as well,” she says. “We first met in a shared concert in Portland and saw immediately that we were a good mix.”

Weber has been working with a group of Portland dancers who will take part in one of her dances at Bates. In addition, six dancers from Weber Dance will come with her to Lewiston.

“We’re looking forward to presenting Jody’s company here at Bates and to share our collective work with new audiences in both places,” Dilley says.

The event coincides with Bates’ Short Term, a five-week semester that allows students to concentrate on a single course. Students from Dilley’s Short Term unit “Tour, Teach, Perform,” based on the presentation of dance in local schools, will attend “Home and Away” rehearsals and the performance as part of their course work.

Carol Dilley supports Jill Eng in one of their joint compositions.

Carol Dilley supports Jill Eng in one of their joint compositions.

Dilley joined the Bates faculty in 2003. She has been a choreographer, performer and teacher for more than 20 years, based in New York, Barcelona, Seattle, Australia and now Maine. She has performed with many companies and choreographers, directed two companies and founded performance series in Europe and Australia. She works internationally in live performance and, more recently, digital media.

Eng is a modern-dance choreographer and performer who has also worked in Boston, North Carolina and New York. She has been the artistic director of Jill Eng/Forward and Up Dance Company since 2005, has danced for many other choreographers in the East and has produced several dance concerts.

Weber Dance has performed at various Greater Boston venues including Green Street Studios, Mobius, First Night and Boston University. Weber’s work has received critical attention in The Boston Globe, Boston Herald and Boston Phoenix.

An avid dance historian, Weber worked with the Boston Dance Alliance to establish an archive of local dance history, and in 2005 completed her doctorate in the field at Boston University. She is assistant professor of dance at Bridgewater State College and teaches community classes at Green Street Studios.