The University of Iowa Department of Dance will present home concerts for its resident touring company, Dancers in Company (DIC), at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, March 7-9, in Space Place Theater in North Hall.

The program will feature pieces by five UI faculty, one UI grad student, and guest artist Nicholas Leichter. Leichter’s piece, Bliss, originally commissioned and premiered by the Harkness Dance Project, was staged and developed on dancers of DIC in 2002. This reconstruction takes the central ideas and material of the piece and has been enhanced and reassembled for the current DIC members. The sound score was designed by Stefan Jacobs and incorporates samples and interpolations from music by Benn Watt, Donny Hathaway, Miles Davis, Tom Browne, Mariah Carey, Angie Stone, and Raphael Saadiq.

Other works on the program:

• Khandjoura by Alan Sener, professor
• Yep by Zoe Bennett, graduate student
• Correnteza by Armando Duarte, professor
• A Practical Ballet Dance for Six… by Deanna Carter, assistant professor
• The Secret Name of the Universe by Jennifer Kayle, associate professor
• Shilly-Shally by Charlotte Adams, associate professor and director of Dancers in Company

Tickets are $12 ($6 for seniors and youth 17 and younger; $5 for UI students with valid ID) and are available through the Hancher Box Office.

In addition, Dancers in Company will perform at the final Arts Share/Community Foundation of Johnson County concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 10, in Space Place. The free concert will be one hour in length, and DIC will perform excerpts of its repertoire, which includes ballet, modern, and hip-hop.

“The DIC Arts Share concert is an event for children of all ages, exploring how dance and movement communicate ideas,” says Adams. “The company will present delightful and varied excerpts of dance works that excite your curiosity. The audience will enjoy participating in warming up to the ‘Funky Penguin,’ creating movement and giving their own ideas about making dances with the dancers.”

Dancers In Company, composed of undergraduates and graduate students, tours throughout Iowa and the Midwest each spring, performing live concerts and lecture demonstrations for audiences of all ages. The company reflects the mission of the department by training dancers in performance and choreography while providing them a top-notch liberal arts education. The company's repertory changes regularly and is selected from award-winning dances by faculty, guest artists, and emerging student choreographers.

The Dancers in Company cast, with hometowns in parentheses, features Zachary Bird (Dubuque, Iowa), Sophia Sednova (New York City), Stav Comay (Minnetonka, Minn.), Leann Gioia (Marengo, Ill.), Sean Laughead (West Des Moines, Iowa), Lauren Linder (Muncie, Ind.), Tyler Clark (Fort Wayne, Ind.), Katie Skinner (Brookfield, Ill.), Bianca Medina (Chicago), Jingqiu Guan (China), Molly Schuneman (Plainfield, Ill.), Dakota Gonzalez (Arlington Heights, Ill.), and understudy Ethan Rome (Dubuque, Iowa).

Dancers in Company’s 2013 tour will take them to the following locations:

• March 13: Iowa Lakes Community College, Emmetsburg and Estherville, Iowa
• March 27: Indian Hills Community College, Ottumwa, Iowa
• April 4: Scott Community College, Bettendorf, Iowa
• April 4: Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa
• April 5: Graceland College, Lamoni, Iowa
• April 12: Hills Elementary School, Hills, Iowa
• April 17: Hawkeye Community College, Waterloo, Iowa
• April 18: Larkin High School, Elgin, Ill.
• April 19: University of Chicago Charter School, Woodlawn Campus, Chicago
• April 19: Hubbard Street Dance Outreach, Lou Conte Dance Studio, Chicago
• May 1: Harding and Franklin Middle Schools, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

The Department of Dance is a part of the Division of Performing Arts in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. For accommodations at the concert please contact the department at 319-335-2228. For a UI arts calendar and details about upcoming events visit the new Arts Iowa website.