Witness chosen for performance at National College Dance Festival
The University of Florida College of Fine Arts School of Theatre and Dance is proud to announce that a poignant dance work choreographed by senior BFA dance major Megan Kendzior, Witness, was selected by a panel of professional adjudicators at this year's American College Dance Festival Regional Conference for performance at this year's National College Dance Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, May 27-29.
In order to achieve this honor, the piece had to be selected for the Gala Concert at the Central Regional Conference for the ACDF, hosted by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Dance.
This prestigious recognition of superior creative work also represents a decade of creative works from the UF dance program representing UF in either the ACDF Gala Concert and/or the National Festival.
Kendzior's work was directly related to her research as a University of Florida University Scholar and inspired by her visit to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp funded by the scholarship program. The work and choreographer also recently received a first place award at the Spring 2010 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Celebration of Creativity in Arts and Sciences Event (C.A.S.E.).
About Witness
Witness is a collaborative dance work with the live, original accompaniment of Frank Ferraro on the accordion. In Witness, four women amidst rows of old shoes, explore the thin line between humane and inhumane and investigate the questions raised about the choice between the two, in the face of great adversity. This project serves as an investigation of the transparent yet defining boundary of human nature, drawing directly from the monstrosity and horror of World War II and the Holocaust. The objective is to reveal the manner in which art can express tangible, complex and historical research, specifically through the medium of physical dance theater. Witness offers an avenue of embodying history, both personal and collective, through movement, music and theater.
Utilizing research from the choreographer's detailed personal history, conflicting religious background and intersecting bloodlines, the work blends gesture and emotion to provide a resonating experience. Embedded within this personal research is an imagined but detailed account of Koncentration Lager Auschwitz. The resulting work, Witness, delves into the horrors of the Holocaust as narrated by the somber breath of the accordion. The work was originally designed by School of Theatre and Dance lighting graduate student Scott Laurentz, who will also be traveling to light it at the Kennedy Center.
About Megan Kendzior
Megan Kendzior graduated from the University of Florida College of Fine Arts with a BFA in Dance on April 30 where she was recognized with an Outstanding Student Award from the college. She has been acknowledged as an emerging performer, a researching choreographer and an arts administrator during her four years as a Gator. Among other awards, she has been a recipient of the University Scholars Research Grant, with which she traveled to Auschwitz. She has been the College of Fine Arts Student Government Senator and is the founding president of a student organization for dance majors, Dance in a Suitcase.
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