The Traveling Airs Performance Company, a graduate dance company at New Mexico State University, will host a premiere production featuring both graduate students and College of Education faculty, along with local visual artists, singers and dancers.
Performances of the production, titled “HOME,” will be at 7:30 p.m. June 3 and 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. June 4 at the ASNMSU Center for the Arts, 1000 E. University Ave. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students.
Performers include faculty members Ana Sufflé, Ann Gavit, Robert Wood, Debra Knapp, Annie Pennies and Tenecia Trammel-Yeboah, and students Jermey Edmonson, Colette Miller, Kelsie Faught, Tim Wood, Artwan Green and Cristina Segovia. Also joining the cast is Tresela Lee Maynard, a Sodexo employee who works at the Corbett Center Student Union and the 3rd Floor Bistro inside the Stan Fulton Athletics Center.
Edmonson and Miller will perform the piece, “Touch.” Edmonson and Miller performed their piece, “The Manipulator,” at the South-Central American College Dance Association 2016 Gala Performance at West Texas A&M University during spring break. “The Manipulator” was selected as an alternate for the American College Dance Association National Conference in Washington D.C. in June.
Knapp, director of dance in the Department of Kinesiology and Dance at NMSU, said “HOME” is an exploration of family relationships that will take audiences on an emotional and spiritual journey through the joys and tribulations of life.
Wood, who is the head of the Kinesiology and Dance department, said Traveling Airs came about as a collaboration between faculty members in the College of Education and graduate students in the dance program.
“While Las Cruces is rich in the performing arts, those of us in this company were looking for something different,” Wood said. “We were looking for a ‘home’ where we could invest and nurture our creative selves. Not surprisingly, the theme of our first show ‘HOME’ is not just a commentary on family relationships, but it is about our own desires to feel and be connected.”
Wood said singers in the performance will pursue everything from classical crossover to contemporary, country and spiritual pieces, and highly accomplished dancers will bring the music to life in ways that are sure to move the audience to tears.
“The talent of the performers is second only to the beauty of the message. ‘HOME’ promises to be a very powerful and emotional production and a great treat for the whole family,” Wood said.
Trammel-Yeboah, an assistant professor and coordinator of Clinical Education in the College of Education’s Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, said she’s honored to showcase her vocal talents in the first performance of the Traveling Airs.
“The Traveling Airs has amassed quite an arsenal of talented individuals, ranging from vocalists, dancers, choreographers and video art technicians. I am honored to serve as a vocalist and to be a part of this very creative and gifted family of artists,” Trammel-Yeboah said. “Our debut is a smorgasbord of light, sound, dance and imaging that will take the audience on an emotional journey through the dynamics of the family, and the trials and triumphs familial relationships bring. We invite the community of Las Cruces and the surrounding areas to join us and let us take them ‘home’.”
For tickets or more information, call the Department of Kinesiology and Dance at 575-646-4067.
Information from NMSU