Works by noted choreographers Monica Bill Barnes and Niles Ford are featured in Bates College Modern Dance Company performances at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13; 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14; and 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 15, in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

Tickets are $6 general admission and $3 for seniors and students, and can be purchased at www.batestickets.com. For more information, please call 207-786-8294.

In addition to dances by Ford and Barnes, the program includes pieces created by Bates faculty members Rachel Boggia and Debi Irons for students in repertory dance courses. Finally, Annie Kloppenberg, a new member of the Colby College dance faculty, presents one of her dances in a performance by her professional company.

Barnes and Ford each spent two weeks working with students to choreograph pieces for the “Repertory Performance” course. Offered every two years, the course gives students experience with renowned choreographers in a professional environment.

“It is truly amazing to see how much the students have grown as dancers and as a community over the semester,” says Boggia, visiting dance professor and acting director of the Bates dance program.

“They all know how to focus deeply despite the demands of their college career. They have physical evidence that hard work brings change. And they’ve learned something about choreography from very different artists. I’m very proud of them.”

In Barnes’ humorous Standing in a Line, the student dancers strive to keep themselves together in a ladylike manner while falling apart at the seams. Assistant Professor of Theater Christine McDowell designed the costumes for the piece.

A rising star in the contemporary dance firmament, Barnes has brought her company to Jacob’s Pillow and the American Dance Festival, in addition to their appearance last summer at the Bates Dance Festival. Barnes’ choreography has been performed at more than 20 New York City venues, including Danspace Project and Symphony Space. Her work has been presented in 30 cities in the U.S. and abroad.

During his Bates residency, Ford asked students to use dance to explore their personal perspectives on political action.

Ford founded and is the artistic director of the Urban Dance Collective, which deals with social issues through art, spoken word and music as well as dance. A 1993 Bessie award recipient in 1993, he has performed with the Boston Ballet, Philadanco, the Rod Rodgers Dance Company and the Dance Theatre of Harlem and with such distinguished figures as Bill T. Jones.

While Boggia created choreography, animation and video design for her piece Somebody, Home, she nevertheless describes the dance as a “deep collaboration.” She worked with students to assemble movement and texts to meld with original music by Portland composer Shamou.

The piece centers on nostalgia for a partly remembered, partly imagined “home.” It was funded in part by the Harward Center for Community Engagement, which coordinates collaborations between Bates College and the community.

A dancer and video artist, Boggia holds a master’s in choreography and technology from Ohio State University. Her collaborations include work with physicist Nandini Trivedi and biologists Susan Fisher and Michael Singer. She has also authored experimental documentation on the artistic process of artists such as Meredith Monk.

Shamou has created original scores for dance companies and choreographers across the U.S., and is known for his collaborations with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Mark Morris Dance Group and the San Francisco Ballet, among others. A native of Iran, Shamou began his formal training in Tehran and completed it at Berklee College of Music.

Irons, a highly respected member of Maine’s dance community, is a prolific choreographer who works with Bates students in jazz-dance technique and advanced jazz repertory. Her students will perform a flirty take on bossa nova and works set to music by T.O.K., Adele, Outkast and Stevie Wonder.

Kloppenberg‘s company will perform a 2005 dance called The Waters at Whose Edge We Stand. Her choreography has been presented at such venues as the Judson Church, Green Street Studios and the Dancespace Center. She performs and teaches nationally as a member of the improvisational ensemble Like You Mean It.

“It’s really exciting to have Annie perform here,” says Boggia. “There are new dance faculty at Bowdoin and Colby colleges this year, and we’re very happy to be establishing exchanges with them.”

In two different programs presented over four performances, the Bates College Modern Dance Company offers its annual spring concert of new student works at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 2, and Monday, April 5; 5 p.m. Saturday, April 3; and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 4, all in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

Admission is $6 for the general public and $3 for seniors and members of organized groups. For more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu, or visit www.batestickets.com.

Thirty-five student dancers and choreographers present 11 dances, divided between two programs. Program A takes place April 2 (as part of a showcase of student works in the annual Mount David Summit), and April 4; Program B will be performed on April 3 and April 5.

The show features projects from students in courses on dance composition, computer music and costume design, as well as contributions from student lighting designers.

In addition, five other students are contributing works created as independent studies.

Four are seniors: Marlena Weinberg of Tampa, Fla., will showcase her research on the creative process of choreographing dance as a visual art form. Harita Daraneeswaran of Edison, N.J., and Nicole Kahn of Bellevue, Wash., combine the rhythmic patterns of American tap and “bharatanatyam,” one of India’s oldest classical dance forms. Gina Petracca of Irvine, Calif., will present a piece about the complexities of relationships in times of transition.

Sophomore Victoria Lowe of New York City will showcase a duet she first created for a psychology course last year and has now revisited as a dance piece for a concert setting.

Admission for the performance, titled “Home & Away III,” is free. For more information, contact this cdilley@bates.edu. Additionally, there will be an open modern dance class in Plavin Studios at noon with Jody Weber.

This is the third exchange between Jody Weber of Bridgewater State College and Dilley, director of Bates’ dance program. The pair began in 2007 with an exchange of student companies, each sharing a class and a combined performance in the home studio of the other. The second exchange was professional works by the non-student companies of the faculty members.

Through these exchanges, Dilley and Weber have developed a supportive network of performance and feedback opportunities between colleagues. Students have the opportunity to perform in the professional working environment of their dance faculty and the faculty choreographers have the opportunity to meet new audiences and interact with peers.

Weber received a BFA from SUNY Purchase in 1988, influenced by teachers Sarah Stackhouse, Kevin Wynn and Mel Wong. In 1992, she received a master’s from American University focusing on dance history. At American University, she received a full teaching fellowship. Over the past 18 years, she has performed in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Boston.

Dilley, who is organizing the event, joined the Bates dance program in fall 2003. She has been an international choreographer, performer and teacher for nearly 20 years. Based first in New York, then Barcelona, Seattle, Sydney and now Maine, she has worked with many companies and independent choreographers as well as her own companies, Radio Suec and Carol Dilley & Co. She has performed her work in the U.S. and Europe both as a solo artist and as director and choreographer.

From left, Yasin Fairley ’12 and Claire Parker ’11 rehearse “doesn’t fall far from the,” a piece choreographed by Lindsay Reuter ’11, for the Bates College Modern Dance Company ‘s annual spring concert of new works.

The Bates College Modern Dance Company offers “Departure Point,” its annual spring concert of new works, in four performances from April 3 through April 6. The Friday performance follows the Mount David Summit, Bates’ annual showcase of student achievement in academics, creative work and community-based research.

Totaling 13 dances in two programs, the concert is the culmination of two dance composition courses. All the pieces were choreographed by students and the lighting designs were also created by students, participants in “The Aesthetics of Light” theater techniques course. More than 65 students are involved in the production including choreographers, designers, dancers and crew.

Admission for each performance is $6 for the general public and $3 for seniors and non-Bates students.

• Friday, April 3, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, April 4, at 5 p.m.; Sunday, April 5, at 2 p.m.; Monday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m.
• Schaeffer Theater, 305 College St. FMI: 207-786-6161 or  www.batestickets.com.

The Bates College Modern Dance Company performs works developed at the college by renowned guest choreographers in three concerts in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.: 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15; 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16; and 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17.

Admission is $6 for the general public and $3 for senior citizens and non-Bates students. For more information, please call 207-786-6161 or visit the online box office.

Choreographers Janis Brenner of New York City, Kellie Lynch of Connecticut and Tania Isaac of Philadelphia have developed dances with Bates students in the course “Dance Repertory Performance.” Bringing sharply distinctive creative processes and visual styles, each has a piece on the November program.

Also featured is a lyrical jazz piece by Portland choreographer Tina Rae Kelly, who has worked with Bates students in an extracurricular capacity.

Finally, in a notable exception to an annual concert typically dedicated to works by faculty and visiting professional choreographers, Bates junior Marlee Weinberg of Tampa, Fla., will present a piece she created.

Artistic director of Janis Brenner & Dancers, Brenner is a dancer, choreographer, singer and teacher. Her work has been commissioned or restaged at more than 40 companies and colleges throughout the world, and she has received such honors for her work as the New York Dance and Performance Award, the Lester Horton Award for Choreography in Los Angeles and the Leach Fellowship for Outstanding Achievement.

Since 1990 Brenner has performed with the pioneering composer and singer Meredith Monk. “Lost Found Lost,” her Bates piece, is set to music by Monk.

Based in New Haven, Conn., Lynch works with choreographer-dancer Ariel Cohen Gonzalez in the two-woman company “slipperyfish dance.” Slipperyfish dance received a 2008 Choreographic Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which the pair will use to introduce their work to communities throughout New England.

Lynch dances with Nazorine Ulysse & Dancers and Bronwen MacArthur’s MacArthur Dance Project. She is also a member of Heidi Henderson’s “elephant JANE dance.” In summer 2008 she premiered new work at the Built on Stilts Festival, Martha’s Vineyard, and the Fledgling Festival, Providence, R.I.

A regular presence at the renowned Bates Dance Festival, Isaac has presented work with her company, Tania Isaac Dance, throughout the U.S., Japan, England and the Caribbean. Originally from the island of St. Lucia, she offers a unique marriage of Caribbean and contemporary movement, music and aesthetics.

Isaac has taught at Temple University and Bryn Mawr College and is a Commonwealth Speaker with the Pennsylvania Humanities Council. She received a 2004 Rocky Award for her piece “Home Is Where I Am,” and her video work has been screened at video dance festivals in North Carolina and Argentina.

Kelly is a jazz and hip-hop choreographer who has been working with Bates students as an extracurricular activity. Her “Three Out of Four Ain’t Bad” will feature a completely different Bates cast and a different style from the rest of the program.

“It’s been exciting to have so many new dancers volunteer for this piece,” says Carol Dilley, director of the Bates dance program. “It is a great starting place for first-years who are just finding their way into the Bates dance community.”

Weinberg performs her duet, “My Eyes on You,” with Jake Lewis, a senior from Katonah, N.Y. Minoring in dance, Weinberg has attended the Bates Dance Festival since her first year at Bates and has choreographed a variety of works in her time here.

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.

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.

Performing two separate programs twice, the Bates College Modern Dance Company presents the results of an innovative collaboration with theatrical lighting designers at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 30-31; 2 p.m. Sunday, April 1; and 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 2.

Program A is offered on Friday and Sunday, and Program B on Saturday and Monday. Performances take place in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St. Admission is $6 for the general public and $3 for non-Bates students, senior citizens, and Bates faculty and staff.

For more information, please call 207-786-6161.Thirty-two dancers and choreographers will take part in the two programs, and three of the dances will be accompanied by music performed or composed by Bates students.

Aptly titled Novel, the overall project comprises 12 pieces. The choreographers are students in the course “Dance Composition,” taught by Sarah McCormick, acting director of the dance program. They collaborated with students in the course “Lighting Design: The Aesthetics of Light,” as well as with the course’s instructor, Michael Reidy.

“Michael and I just put our students together and they sat on the floor talking away,” says McCormick. “The assignment for each choreographer entailed choosing a piece of literature — hence Novel for the concert title. And this engaged the lighting designers to consider a myriad of lighting images, colors, stage designs and so on.”

She added, “Choreography might be defined as creating or designing movement in space, but the full exploration of lighting, costuming and how the dancers interpret the movement is what makes dance an exciting and thrilling art form.”

To see all events open to the public at Bates this month, visit the online Public Events Calendar.