Alabama dance company travels to Scotland for festival performance

By WVUA 23 News Student Reporter Peyton Newman

Yonder Dance Company within the University of Alabama’s Department of Dance is traveling to Scotland to perform in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The festival hosts artistic creations ranging from comedy to music, with performance groups large and small, from all around the world. It is the largest performing arts festival in the world.

Yonder performers choreographed their routine themselves in the fall of 2022 and perfected the routine through performances around the country this past spring. In total, the dance lasts an entire 35 minutes and is titled, “Unstuck With You.”

The performance is focused on the relationship between humans and space, how humans can have a significantly large role while being insignificant at the same time when looking at the idea through different perspectives. The dancers collaborated with a writer, telling her their ideas while she created and voiced a spoken word for them to dance to.

Associate Chair of Dance and UA Dance Professor Sarah Barry explained what makes this experience so special for the dance company.

“They’re very unique performances,” Barry said. “They’re not in traditional proscenium stage venues, so lots of converted spaces. So it really gives dancers an idea of different venues, different spaces they could work in, different ways to convey ideas to an audience through the body, through theater.”

The festival starts Aug. 4 and ends Aug. 28.