Bates to host regional dance festival

Bates College will sponsor the 1997 New England Regional American College Dance Festival Friday, Jan. 17) through Sunday, Jan. 19. Certain festival performances will be open to the public at the cost of $10 for two concerts. Tickets can be purchased at the door.

The performances open to the public are as follows

• Judged concerts, Friday (Jan. 17) at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in Schaeffer Theatre.
• Faculty concert, Saturday (Jan. 18) at 8:15 p.m. in the Benjamin Mays Center.
• Gala concert, Sunday (Jan. 19) at 1 p.m. in Schaeffer Theatre.

The New England festival is one of eight regional festivals held throughout the country in cooperation with the American College Dance Festival Association (ACDFA). This is the fifth time Bates College has hosted the festival.

Designed to encourage excellence in performance and choreography on the college level, the ACDFA held its first festival at the University of Pittsburgh in 1973. Judges traveled to four states and viewed 65 works at 25 colleges and universities.

Today, more than 350 works are viewed with 2,000 student participants representing 44 states. The festivals provide classes, workshops and performance experiences for student dancers and enable them to have their works adjudicated and critiqued by established professionals.

“This year’s festival will celebrate students in dance, allowing them the unusual opportunity to teach and participate in the adjudication process,” said Marcy Plavin, festival coordinator and member of the Bates theater department. Festival adjudicators include Suzanne Carboneau, dance critic for The Washington Post, and Marjorie Mussman, who has been a soloist for the Joffrey Ballet.

For more information on the festival, call 207-786-6157