On February 22 and 23, 2023, the Ent Center for the Arts at UCCS and the UCCS Theatre & Dance Program present a dance experience unlike any other featuring Tiffany Mills Dance Company. The reemergence of the Ent Center’s cabaret club format will extend a unique opportunity to audiences, who will encounter one of New York City’s finest contemporary dance companies up close and personal, from tables and seats onstage.
“Cabaret style work has long been a dream of ours in the Theatre and Dance Program because it gets to the best of our values and ethos: a prizing of the intersections of professional and the academic in new, unusual, and often interdisciplinary ways,” said Kevin Landis, Director of the Theatre & Dance program at UCCS. “In this cabaret model, our students and community get up close and personal with the work of art—the moving bodies, the singers, the performers, the video projections—and thus, we demystify the performance experience, while making it even more spectacular and inclusive. We will see and meet Tiffany Mills, talk to her about her work, and sit onstage with the company as they create imaginative worlds to dream into.”
“As with Prologue, our goal is to bring some of the best scholars and artists in the country to Colorado Springs in a format that allows for true and generative connections,” he continued. “Tiffany and her company are truly world class. We are honored that they will also work with our students in resident workshops. We are so lucky to have them.”
The New York Times noted that Tiffany Mills is a “choreographer who relies on text and partnering to explore human relationships,” which makes the patron’s proximity to dancers in this February’s performances a powerful inclusion of the audience in the work.
“Homing,” the work being performed for Colorado audiences, is a glorious dance and theatrical composition that addresses our post-pandemic relationship to home and will premiere the Ent Center’s new and intimate cabaret club format, complete with drinks and small bites. Please join us after each performance for a salon conversation with the artists.
“The most exciting live performances are so often an unspoken conversation between the artist and the audience,” said David Siegel, Executive Director of the Ent Center for the Arts. “The audience is just as important as the artist. Unfortunately, COVID and the move to socially distanced performances made this conversation impossible. As we continue to celebrate the return to live performance, we are excited to embrace the joy of live performance by bringing the audience on stage to interact and experience world class dance in a whole new way.”
“The Tiffany Mills Company is known for their playful ability to integrate a story into the choreography. This combination of athletic dance and playful story is the perfect recipe for the cabaret style performance,“ he added.
Whether you are looking for a unique date night, want to expand on your experience with the arts, or are simply a seasoned dance lover, Tiffany Mills Dance Company’s performances at the Ent Center should be on your calendar! Tables include a complimentary bottle of wine, and single tickets are also available. Reserve seats today to ensure you don’t miss out on these two intimate evenings with dance.
Quick facts:
What: Tiffany Mills Dance Company, a contemporary dance company from New York City
Who: Presented by Ent Center for the Arts at UCCS and the UCCS Theatre & Dance Program
When: Wednesday, February 22, 2023 – Thursday, February 24, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Shockley-Zalabak Theater, Ent Center for the Arts
How: Tickets are on sale, call the Box Office 719-255-8181 or visit tickets.entcenterforthearts.org
Cost: $38-48 for single tickets; $115-200 for cabaret tables
About Tiffany Mills Dance Company
Tiffany Mills and the NYC-based Tiffany Mills Dance Company has created over 20 works performed with a “fearless sense of freedom and exhilaration” (Washington Post). The company was formed in 1995 and incorporated as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization in 2000. Mills’ process of creation is collaborative, ensemble-based, and multidisciplinary. She collaborates to blur lines between mediums and to discover layered methods of constructing dances (drawn from partnering, improvisation, and somatic modalities). When meaning emerges from form, Mills takes command of the work, directing the dancers and the precise shape, emotion, and character of the choreography. The work often focuses on the vulnerability of being human through investigating themes of communication, connection, relationship, exposure, breakdown, and transformation. Mills celebrates differences amongst the performers. She challenges the audience to be in an active role — to participate, experience, absorb and respond. Learn more at tiffanymillscompany.org.
About UCCS Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA)
The Department of Visual and Performing Arts houses programs in Art History, Film Studies, Museum and Gallery Practice, Music, Theatre & Dance, and Visual Arts. These programs share a mission to explore interdisciplinarity and artistic innovation. Cultivating a thriving student experience is the reason we are here; Our classes remain small and individual mentorship is our mantra. Learn more at vapa.uccs.edu.
About the Ent Center for the Arts
This first-class arts facility, located on the University of Colorado Colorado Springs campus serves the community as a hub for the arts and an inspiration in academics. The vision for the facility was and is to foster a creative environment to house arts that will serve the Pikes Peak region, allowing artists to inspire and amplify one another rather than compete against one another. Art brings together diverse peoples and ideas in ways no other discipline can, and the Ent Center will be a pillar of the arts community within Colorado Springs. Learn more at entcenterforthearts.org.