Department of Dance Feb. 17, 1998 Contact Ruth Heller (541) 346-3387 or John R. Crosiar 346-3135 EUGENE--The University of Oregon Department of Dance will showcase works that two guest artists have created with UO dancers in "Winter Dance: Visiting Artists Concert" at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 27-28, in the Dougherty Dance Theatre at Gerlinger Annex, 1484 University St. on the UO campus. Les Watanabe, a visiting assistant professor, has created a duet, "Whispers, rain, Shakuhachi, bell, Taiko, poem--Dialogue with Japan" for two of his students. An original electronic score by Jeffrey Stolet, associate professor of music and dance, provides a tonal atmosphere for the dancers. Kay Bardsley, recognized in dance circles as one of the foremost authorities on Isadora Duncan and Duncan dance, and recipient of the 1997-98 University of Oregon Creativity Award, has set two movements of Isadora Duncan's interpretation of Beethoven's "Seventh Symphony" on 13 UO dancers. Admission to "Winter Dance" is $6 for the general public and $4 for students and senior citizens. Tickets, available at the door, will go on sale at 7 p.m.; the theater will open one-half hour before show time. Watanabe's original intent was to employ a cinematic sensibility to create an unhurried work of texture and sounds, evocative of faded memories. He describes the finished work as a coming to terms, however fleeting, with his identity as a Japanese-American. He adds that an additional source of inspiration came from the dancers whose presence "imbued the dance with atmosphere, simplicity and grace." Watanabe has performed as a soloist in the dance companies of Donald McKayle and Lar Lubovitch, in the Sachiyo Ito Japanese Dance Company, Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble and the Los Angeles Jazz Company, and with choreographers Peter Goss and Molly Malloy in France. He has performed in musical theater, television, rock shows, film and Broadway. His teaching and choreographic career in the United States and Europe spans 20 years. His most recent works for theater were presented at four national theaters and The Stadtstheatre in St. Pölten, Austria. Bardsley's experiences with dance began when, at the age of nine, she became a pupil of one of Duncan's own students, Maria-Theresa Duncan. As a young adult, Bardsley became a lead dancer in the "Heliconiades," her teacher's dance company, as well as her teaching assistant. After a varied career in dance, television and journalism, Bardsley has devoted the past 20 years to the study and dissemination of Duncan dance. She is currently director of the Isadora Duncan International Institute Inc., which she co-founded with Maria-Theresa in 1977. Duncan first danced Beethoven's "Seventh Symphony" as a solo beginning in 1904. Ten years later she entrusted Maria-Theresa Duncan with her ideas for transforming the solo into a group work. In 1938, Maria-Theresa began to teach this group version to her own New York-based dance group, the "Heliconiades," and they performed it during 1940-41. Bardsley and Maria-Theresa Duncan revived the work in 1979 as part of the national celebration of the centennial of Duncan's birth. The UO performances will be the first official revivals of the second and fourth movements since the centennial concerts. Duncan's dances have an emotional power that remains as compelling today as when they were first presented more than 90 years ago. The two movements of the symphony illustrate the emotional and dynamic range of this style of dance. The second movement reflects the more spiritual aspect of the Duncan repertoire as a procession of dancers struggle to overcome despair and hopelessness as they are led towards the light of hope. In contrast, the symphony's finale is a frenzied bacchanal, a danced realization of the earthly and profane. For further information, call (541) 346-3386. To confirm performance times and ticket information, call GuardLine from a Touch-Tone phone at 485-2000, ext. 2533, for a 24-hour taped message about dance and other School of Music events. -30- #P-2154/A&E