Sweet Briar’s 2009 Fall Dance Concert will be held at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 13 and 14 in the College’s Murchison Lane Auditorium. Admission is free.

The program, described by dance professor Mark Magruder as “primarily modern dance but [with] lots of variety,” will include performances by Sweet Briar dance majors and faculty. More than 30 students will perform, as will Magruder and his wife, Ella, who also teaches dance at the College.

For the concert, Magruder has choreographed a group piece he calls “Stones and Scones.” It includes live music played by Magruder, on guitar and other instruments, and drummer Tom Marcais, who works in the College’s academic computing department.

“Stones and Scones” incorporates “long pieces of fabric [and] it should have some lighting effects that will be kind of unusual,” Magruder said. “It’s a very abstract piece but has these images of stone, but also this strange little tea party that happens in it, too. It kind of has this strange little going back and forth, from nature-type images to a tea.”

Magruder describes the dance his wife has choreographed for the show as “very organic [and] natural” with a “sculptural quality to it where dancers are making big shapes together.”

Other dances on the program include one by sophomore Anna Marie Carr, in which five students perform to a score by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The piece “has a really nice country feel to it,” Magruder said, describing the number as Appalachian hoedown meets classical.

In sophomore Ashley Adams’ piece, “My Hallucination,” dancers will incorporate black light art and “glow-in-the-dark props,” Magruder said. “It has a neat lighting effect to it and the piece seems to be kind of fun [with] lots of energy.”

Magruder described senior Courtney Hurt’s dance as “very dramatic” with “lots of level changes” and said junior Sara Buttine has an “incredible duet” planned “with one student wearing a sloppy sweater and the other trying to get it away from [her].”

He praised the dancing in Buttine’s piece as “really excellent” and said, “It’s kind of funny, but it’s interesting. The one doesn’t want the other one to wear the sweater. It’s a loose, stretchy sweater and has a very interesting visual look to it.”

Sophomore Cortney Lewandowski also has choreographed a duet, “a jazzy piece,” Magruder said. “It’s well crafted and when they are in unison they seem to be in excellent unison. It’s kind of a fun piece.”

Senior Katherine Boltz, who spent last semester in Ireland studying Irish dance and culture, has choreographed a “crossover” dance — modern and Irish. She describes her dance as having “some Irish dance elements to it.” In it, she and two other students will dance to music by the Afro Celt Sound System, a group that, as the name implies, fuses Celtic and African music.

Boltz said the dance, which she’s still fine tuning, will be “very physical” and “inspired by my time in Ireland. I will try to convey the joy and the fun. The dance is a lot of fun.”

For more information about the Fall Dance Concert, contact Magruder at (434) 381-6150.