Cornell dance faculty member Byron Suber's newest project combines the talents of Cornell students, local youth, community members and professionals from outside Ithaca into a new performance group.

The "edgeofthegorge" group will begin by focusing on combining dance with original experimental video and music. The group plans a series of site-specific installations and performances this academic year, including taking part in the two major dance concerts mounted each year by the Department of Performing and Media Arts.

"I have thought about starting a dance/performance group for quite some time, several years actually," Suber said. "The department has always had activities that would fall into the category of an actual organized group, but never officially named it as one."

The group's first project will be a multifaceted, multi-focused, multi-site piece performed in several different ways, places and times of the year. The dance will include components of live performance (movement and voice), digital video projections and sound, with these components changing their configurations and relationships to each other in different performances. Choreography will be done by Suber as well as by professionals and student choreographers.

Beginning this semester and over the next three years, the group plans to collaborate with Melora Craeger, who has toured with Nirvana and Marilyn Manson and founded the experimental pop music group Rasputina.

Students have always wanted to form an organized departmental group, Suber said. "There is the status and prestige connected to being a part of something that is recognized by Cornell," he said. "It is something that they can take with them on their resume once they leave Cornell."

The group will experiment with different forms of performance and presentation.

"I would like to foster something that moves further into the experimental arenas of movement, performance, video and sound installation art," Suber said. "I'm interested in creating work and supporting work that it is more raw and edgy than what I have been able to do previously in Ithaca."

Suber teaches ballet and modern technique, dance history and criticism, dance composition and digital media, and directs an interdisciplinary Cornell summer program in Europe. He also holds a master's degree in the history of architecture and urban development from the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.

Kathy Hovis is director of marketing for the Department of Performing and Media Arts.