Bodies in motion, bodies in space, and most particularly the connections of bodies in relationship to other bodies – these are just a few of the topics tackled in Macalester College’s Fall Dance Concert, Face to Face. The Fall Dance Concert is traditionally a mélange of pieces by students and faculty of the Theatre and Dance Department.

This year’s show contains four student-choreographed dances, four faculty-choreographed, and one new work by a guest choreographer. Krista Langberg, instructor of the Dance Improvisation technique class, presents Things on the Inside, which examines durability and fragility, looking at layers of perception, confusion and clarity, as well as the potential to experience the sublime in unexpected places. Becky Heist, senior dance instructor at Macalester, offers Vagabondage, where five fiercely independent vagabonds cavort through the Irish hinterlands to the sounds of electric guitar played live by Macalester alum Benjamin Abrahamson. Wynn Fricke, chair of the Dance Department, brings Into White, a surreal and sharply intimate view into a moment of dying performed by award-winning guest dancer Nic Lincoln of the James Sewell Ballet. Patricia Brown, Macalester’s African Dance instructor, creates a joyous ensemble work inspired by West African and Caribbean dance forms and celebrates community with rhythmically intricate choreography performed to music by Samba Mapangala.

Macalester College was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work this semester with Luke Olson-Elm, Director of Lucas Daniel Dance Company and recently nominated for a Minnesota SAGE award for outstanding dance performance. Olson-Elm’s piece, #LostConnection, looks at the costs of how the current generation chooses to communicate via social media and messaging. A tour-de-force in their own right, Emma Buechs (‘13), Carly Silva (‘13), Phoebe DeVincenzi (‘13), and Julia Davidson (‘13) are the four students who rose to the task of choreographing their own pieces for casts ranging from two to eight of their peers. Each of the works presents a different examination of the human body and its interactions. DeVincenzi’s Eye rEvolve focuses on the momentum of bodily consciousness and the ways bodies fit into and disrupt space. The Source, by Silva, looks at the journey of people whose lives intersect as they work towards a common goal.

Buechs draws inspiration from authentic movement and corporeal expression in her devised piece, Elsewhere. Finally, Julia Davidson in her duet, ambulo; ambulem, works with the notion of how two bodies can move as one physical unit and how one body can move as two. Face to Faceperformances are in the Main Stage Theater of the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on December 7 and 2:00 and 7:30 p.m. on December 8.

For ticket information, call 651-696-6359 or visit the Box Office in the Theatre Lobby. Tickets are $2 for students with reservation, free for student rush, and free for Macalester/ACTC faculty and staff. General admission is $7.