DANCE PERFORMANCE 'FINDING STILL IN A TIME OF CHAOS' ON FEBRUARY 11 REUNITES DANCE GROUP FROM CALIFORNIA AND HAWAI'I CC DANCE PROGRAM

California State University, East Bay’s Inclusive Interdisciplinary Ensemble (IIE) returns to Hawai'i Island to collaborate with Hawai'i Community College and UH Hilo’s Dance Programs from February 6 – 12. The group will be welcomed with a Kīpaepae Welina at Papa 'A Hale at 8:30 a.m. on February 7.

The group’s faculty leader, Associate Professor of Dance, Eric Kupers, describes the group: “The CSUEB Inclusive Interdisciplinary Ensemble (IIE) is a wildly diverse group of performing artists with and without disabilities and of diverse sizes, shapes, ages, artistic backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, and approaches to life. We work together all year to create radically inclusive performance works aimed at transforming the lives of all we come into contact with."

IIE began in 2006 and did a similar collaboration with Professor Trina Nahm-Mijo and Lecturer in Dance Annie Bunker in 2013, culminating in a joint performance at the East Hawai'i Cultural Center entitled: “Undercurrents in the Ring of Fire: Works in Progress.” This year’s collaboration will culminate in a “Transformance” entitled: “Finding Still in a Time of Chaos” to be held on Saturday, February 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the UH Hilo Old Gym.

It is a free event and the college as well as the general community is encouraged to experience a unique blurring of the lines between audience and performers. Nahm-Mijo has described it as an opportunity to “individually and collectively express and support each other's anger, frustration, fear, confusion, and HOPE for our present reality through our images, sounds, and movement.”