Stewart brings dance to Faculty Spotlight Series

Melanie Stewart, along with fellow choreographer Will Bond, brings dance to Rowan University’s Faculty Spotlight Series with I’ll Crane For You on Monday, February 1 at 5 pm in Tohill Theatre, on the university’s Glassboro campus.

Stewart and Bond perform their adaptations of choreographer Deborah Hay’s solo work (I’ll Crane For You), created as part of Hay’s 2008 Solo Performance Commissioning Project in which artists developed work based on the same solo dance.

In her take on the piece, Stewart exposes the subtle and often fragile relationship between audience and performer. Bond’s performance is described as being like a creature that seems part human and then again not, but always filled with humanity.

A 27-year veteran of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Rowan, Stewart is coordinator of the university’s dance program. She is artistic director and founder of Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre in Philadelphia and regularly produces work for the concert stage, dance/film/video and educational settings, both nationally and abroad. She has been a choreographer in residence at The American Dance Festival and Jacob Pillow’s Winter Pillow and a frequent producer at renowned Fringe festivals, from Edinburgh to New York and Philadelphia. From 2003-2009, Stewart was producing director of the nEW Festival in Philadelphia.

Bond is a founding member of SITI Company. He has performed and toured nationally and internationally in a variety of productions with the company. He has toured with Tadashi Suzuki, SCOT and with Robert Wilson’s Persephone. Bond is an associate artist at Actors Theatre of Louisville and is currently an artist-in-residence in the Theatre Department at Skidmore College.

Tohill Theatre is located in Bunce Hall on the campus of Rowan University, Route 322 in Glassboro. Presented by the College of Fine & Performing Arts, all Faculty Spotlight Series events are free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. For directions or additional information, call the box office at (856) 256-4545, email arts@rowan.edu or visit www.rowan.edu/fpa.