The Department of Theatre and Dance is pleased to announce UNH Dance Company’s Double Bill: Celtic Roots and Intrigues showing March 29 – April 2 at the Johnson Theatre. Celtic Roots pursues the traditions of Celtic culture, fantasy, and myth through jazz, tap, and aerial dance. Intrigues, a ballet, in trio with commedia dell’arte characters and Schumann’s romantic lyrical music (played live), will offer a dramatic element and will beautifully capture the essence of emotion, period, and style. 

Celtic Roots, a dance performance grounded by the forms of jazz and tap, will soar with aerial arts; from high-energy, toe-tapping rhythms, and eccentric movement to the fancy flight of tender folk ballads. The elements of earth, fire, wind, and water combined with the sister arts of music and dance will conjure Celtic mystique bygone and will inflame Celtic contempo extraordinaire. 

Intrigues captures the period at the end of the Roaring Twenties; people were swept up in a vortex of activity where fame and fortune could be quickly won and lost. At a New Year’s Eve party in a New York City hotel ballroom, the celebration becomes more than a night of fun.  Plots reveal secrets best kept hidden lest the characters spiral into an abyss of their own making.  In the midst of grandeur and fun, the dance leaps and whirls between contrasting personalities, illusions, moods, secrets, love, and conflict.

Gay Nardone professor of theatre dance (tap and jazz dance) and aerial dance, is the choreographer and director. Nardone received her master's and bachelor's of fine arts from the Boston Conservatory. She began her career with the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, and danced with the June Taylor Dancers of the Jackie Gleason television show. She has choreographed operas and musicals for the university, including Into the Woods and Amahl and The Night Visitors, as well as No No Nanette for Prescott Park. She is a rhythm tap enthusiast and has performed with tap greats, including Brenda Bufalino and Jimmy Slyde.

C. Laurence Robertson, professor of dance, received his early training at the U.S. International University School of Performing Arts in San Diego, California where he also received his master's and bachelor's in ballet. He studied with Richard and Nancy Carter, co-directors of the San Diego Ballet, and Erling Sunde and Elaine Thomas, formerly of the Royal Ballet in England.  He danced with the San Diego Ballet Company, the Houston Ballet Company, and was a soloist with the Boston Ballet Company, directed by E. Virginia Williams.  He has choreographed ballets for the Boston Ballet Company, the Pioneer Valley Ballet, the San Diego Ballet Company, the Walnut Hill School of the Performing Arts, the Mount Laurel Ballet Company, and the Seacoast Ballet Company. He came to UNH in 1978 and is director of dance.

Showtimes are March 29 through April 1, 7 p.m., and April 2, 2 p.m.

For tickets, contact the MUB ticket office Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at 2-2290 or visit www.unhmub.com. Tickets are $12.50 for general admission, $10.50 for seniors, children 12 & under, UNH ID holders, and groups of 15 or more. The Theatre Lobby Box Office opens one hour prior to curtain. For more information, please call 2-2919.