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November Dances 2017 Pairs Dance With Music By Local Jazz Musician

Performances are Nov. 17-18 at Reynolds Industries Theater

The concert will feature dance accompanied by live music with local musician Shana Tucker.
The concert will feature dance accompanied by live music with local musician Shana Tucker. Photo by Alec Himwich

DURHAM, N.C. -- The Duke University Dance Program’s fall dance concert will feature dance accompanied by live music with local jazz/R&B musician Shana Tucker.

November Dances 2017 starts at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 17-18, in Reynolds Industries Theater in the Bryan Center on Duke’s West Campus. Tickets may be purchased at the box office in the center or online. General admission price is $17; $12 for senior citizens; $7 for students.

The concert features new ballet, modern and jazz choreography by Duke faculty and advanced dance students.

Among the performances, dance professor Andrea E. Woods Valdés has restaged her work, “Mirada Rítmica/Rhythmic Gaze,” for her modern dancers. They will collaborate with Tucker, a cellist and singer who has performed with Cirque de Soleil and opened for Norah Jones, Sweet Honey in the Rock and the Blind Boys of Alabama, among others. Local musicians Beverly Botsford and Will Ridenour will also accompany the performance.

Associate professor Tyler Walters has created a dance and media work for his ballet dancers, “screendancestudy#4 (with references to no place).”

Jazz instructor Nina Wheeler’s piece is inspired by the poet Maya Angelou, who said, “You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it's all there. Everything influences each of us. …”

November Dances also showcases the work of dance students at Duke. Senior Ashlynn Miller and junior Sara Yuen will dance a duet about friendship, “1+1.”  Sophomore Milan Hamilton will perform a solo, “What I’m Left With,” which explores her struggles with grief. Sophomore Gaby Cooper will also dance a solo.

Watch a trailer produced by Duke students Akylah Cox and Riley Reardon for Dance for the Camera (Dance 306S) at https://youtu.be/qTWW6xlCMIU.

More information on Shana Tucker is at http://www.shanatucker.com/about.