UW-Stevens Point showcases new works in ‘Danstage 2025’

Featuring new dance works by faculty and guest artists, “Danstage 2025” will celebrate dance and conclude the spring University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Department of Theatre and Dance season with performances with performances from April 11-13.
 
“Danstage 2025” will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 11-12, and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 12-13, in the Jenkins Theatre in the Noel Fine Arts Center. This year’s concerts feature new choreography by dance faculty members Sarah Olson and Michael Estanich as well as guest artists Pamela Luedtke and Jeffrey Peterson.
 
Tickets are $27 for adults, $24 for seniors and UW-Stevens Point faculty and staff, and $16 for youth. Tickets will be available for purchase at tickets.uwsp.edu, by calling 715-346-4100 or by visiting the Information and Tickets Office in the Dreyfus University Center in Stevens Point.
 
Luedtke’s “Echoes of Self”, a collaborative modern dance piece co-choreographed by Luedtke and Katelyn Altman, to the Goldberg Variations composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. The work includes a live musical performance by classical pianist Nell Buchman. The original duet for Luedtke and Altman debuted last fall during the Waupaca Bach Festival (2024) and is restaged for Danstage 2025 on six cast members from the UWSP Dance Program. Each section of the dance is a representation of a single line of poetry that accumulates into a poem written by Stana Luedtke. The poem reflects on the inner echoes of the passage of time and self.
 
Luedtke is an Associate-Lecturer of Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Ms. Altmann is a professional dancer from Milwaukee area who was a former dance student of Ms. Luedtke in her early years growing up in the Stevens Point area. Ms. Buchmann teaches and performs piano at Lawrence University, the Lawrence Community Music School, and throughout Wisconsin.
 
Peterson will share “Side By Side”, an uplifting group work for 16 dancers to the iconic jazz score “First Circle” by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays. “Side By Side” is a celebration of rhythm, pattern and community. Peterson was in residence in the UW-Stevens Point Dance Program in February to restage this challenging and energizing work.
 
Olson has created two new works for Danstage 2025: “Looking for a Sliver of Light” and “Spring Blossoms”. Set to a contemporary score by CoH and Travis Lake, “Looking for a Sliver of Light” explores the possibility of hope within dark times and features a cast of eleven dance majors and minors. “Spring Blossoms”, a love letter to Tchaikovsky’s iconic Waltz of the Flowers, celebrates the beauty of contemporary ballet for an ensemble of eight.
 
Estanich will premiere “Our House Upended”, a new dance theatre work that creates a world of movement, text and sculpture aligning to reveal images and metaphors of contemporary life. His piece exists within a dynamic set design of floating tables and chairs and an abstract minimalist house frame designed by UWSP BFA Design and Technology student, Mattie Ruona.