Aqua 2 is the third collaboration between Valerie Huston, Senior Lecturer Ballet UCSB and Carley Conder artistic director of CONDER/Dance in Arizona. She is a full time faculty member at Arizona State University. Their previous collaborations of Avian and Aqua were groundbreaking collaborations and offered rare opportunities for our students to dance and create.
This new collaboration is scheduled to open Winter’s Song – An Elegy to Melting Ice on February 2 and 3 in the Hatlen Theater, UCSB.
The work will focus on the fragile nature of our environment and how the global issue of melting glaciers will influence climate and our life on earth. The cast includes 11 first year dance majors, as well as senior year students and a grad student! The CONDER/Dance company will be in residence join the cast of the production. We believe this will be an amazing creative dymamic and offer students a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity to create dance work centered on a critical issue of our times.
An important aspect our our concept is the creation of ice music instruments. The Aqua 2 production featured two six foot high ice sculptures created by “Robert the Iceman” from Long Beach, California. They melted as the performance progressed and were a symbol for the passing of time and the destruction of the environment. We will ask Robert to create ice chimes which will provide a soundscape for portions of the work. A new set will be used for each performance (melting ice!)
