Salve Regina’s dance program offers live public performance entitled “Portals and Passages”

The dance program at Salve Regina is putting on its first live concert open to the public since the start of the pandemic this upcoming weekend at the Casino Theatre. Entitled “Portal and Passages,” the concert showings will be held on Thursday, Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m.; and Saturday, Nov. 20, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Please call 401-341-2250 to reserve seats, or purchase tickets online at salve.edu/performances.

Directed by Lindsay Guarino, associate professor of dance, the concert celebrates dance as an invitation to be transported away to spaces that make one think, feel and dream.

​”This is our first concert in almost two years where families and outside members of the community can attend,” said Guarino, who is also the chairwoman of the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance. “I’m so excited that my students can share a piece of their Salve dance life with their families and feel the support of their loved ones from the audience.”

All photos are from “Passages and Portals,” which will be performed various times during Nov. 18-20.

​Most of the dancers in the Extensions Dance Company are majoring in dance at Salve Regina and are in the studio training every day. Salve Regina’s dance program has a jazz dance focus in the curriculum, made visible in performance through the aesthetic of the company. Even the pieces that lean towards contemporary rather than jazz still highlight the way rhythm, individuality, and dynamic energy are central to the way Salve Regina’s dancers work.

Sarah McCormick ’23 and Abigail Figlock ’25 will both be performing in the upcoming concert. They are excited to showcase the work that has gone into the dance pieces this semester, and they both reflected on the theme of the show — “Portals and Passages.”

“I always think of dance as an escape,” said Figlock, who is double majoring in dance and marketing. “In this show, each individual dance has its own ‘portal’ into a different world. So the concert is getting to explore that and having that each dance encompass its own special universe that you won’t find in a different dance.”

“For me, ‘passages’ is about the sense that we’re finding a way through some issues that everybody in this country is working on,” added McCormick, a theatre and dance major with a political science minor. “Dance is just like a different way of showing these issues.”

While performers will not be required to wear a mask while on stage, audience members are required to wear a mask upon entry to the theater. The Casino Theatre is located at 9 Freebody Street in Newport, Rhode Island. Tickets are free for Salve Regina students, $8 for Salve Regina faculty and staff, $10 for military and seniors, and $15 for general admission.

Please call 401-341-2250 to reserve seats, or purchase tickets online at salve.edu/performances. Tickets will also be available immediately prior to each performance at the box office. For the most up-to-date information, follow Salve Regina Dance on Instagram or  Facebook.