This year’s spring dance concert, “Images in Motion,” will feature new faculty-choreographed works that explore the fleeting nature of human activities in space and time. Each moment frames a never-to-be-repeated, multi-dimensional composition of form, light, color, texture, sound and feeling.

Alumnus helps bring vision to stage

The concert is inspired by photographer Eadweard Muybridge’s ground-breaking studies in motion during the late 1800s — particularly his study of a ballet dancer that captured the seamless, fluid motion and presented a frame-by-frame deconstruction.

Alumnus Mark Santillano also helped choreograph the concert while he was here in January.

Santillano is an assistant professor of dance at Mercyhurst Univeristy in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he teaches modern, tap, jazz, musical theatre dance and choreography. He has performed in national theatre tours and has choreographed works for numerous dance companies. He is also founder and co-director of SoMar Dance Works.

Any Given Child program to bring eighth graders to the concert

Eighth graders from Springfield Public Schools will have the opportunity to watch the concert for free as part of the local Any Given Child program. There will be two special performances on April 29 — at 9:30 a.m. and then again at 12:30 p.m.

Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child is sponsored by The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2010, Springfield was the second city in the U.S., after Sacramento, Calif., be selected for the program. Any Given Child is also part of Arts in Action, an effort funded by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and the Springfield Regional Arts Council.

Want to go to the concert?

Showtimes: 7:30 p.m., April 28-30; 2:30 p.m., May 1
Location: Craig Hall Coger Theatre
Tickets: $14 Adults; $12 Students/Seniors; $8 in advance with MSU ID