The Department of Theatre and Dance in the College of Charleston School of the Arts will showcase REALIGN directed by Kristin Alexander and choreographed by the College’s dance faculty, guest artist Michael Nickerson-Rossi, and senior dance major Anna Brown. The College’s dance students comprise the cast.

With a campus-wide initiative to educate and create a more sustainable community, “Realign” explores the theme of sustainability through historical authenticity and necessary shifts in our thinking and doing. Some of the choreographers have used the College’s focus of water sustainability, allowing for the arts and sciences to intersect as they creatively investigate environmental themes, and promote cross-disciplinary expression and discussion of topics relating to the broad theme of a sustainable future.

Guest artist Michael Nickerson-Rossi, founder and artistic director of Nickerson-Rossi Dance Company, spent the last weekend in August setting his piece, “Us and Them” about the divide between communities, with specific reference to environmental racism and how water quality is socioeconomically driven. Alexander collaborated with marine ecologist/photographer and National Geographic grantee Clare Fieseler, in a work about ghost forests. Alexander hopes that the dance will be a beautiful and haunting interpretation of the changing landscape on the East Coast because of the rising sea levels. Through special permission granted from the Doris Humphrey Foundation for Dance, Dr. Gretchen McLaine is reconstructing Humphrey’s iconic work, “Soaring.” Using a written system of movement analysis known as Labanotation, McLaine’s reconstruction sustains the legacy of the artist, preserves a written system of recording movement, and supports our dance history and heritage.

The three-day run will take place Friday, Nov. 17 through Sunday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m. (Sunday show at 2:00 p.m. only) at the Emmett Robinson Theatre, Simons Center for the Arts, 54 Saint Philip St. Tickets are $20 for public admission; $15 for senior citizens, College of Charleston students, employees and non-College of Charleston students; and $12 for College of Charleston students. Tickets can be purchased ONLINE or by calling (843) 953-5604. Presented with support from the College’s Sustainability Literacy Institute.