Andrew Gillis

From left, students Gray Ryan, Lauren Cranidiotis, Louisianna Tekosky, Jacob Hunter, Renee Lu, Deanna Myskiw, Monica Xu, Sarah Behringer and Mary Abramczu will be featured in this weekend’s Mini Locally Grown Dance Festival.

The Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts will host three days of dance with the Mini Locally Grown Dance Festival, Dec. 3-5.

The program includes dances created this semester in the Department of Performing and Media Arts by choreographers and dancers of all levels, from undergraduates, graduate students and faculty.

“The evening’s diverse program will include works ranging from personal tragedy, vivacious friendships, difficult rejections to abstract forms, each revealing layers of other, perhaps starkly opposite meanings,” said dance faculty senior lecturer and coordinator Jumay Chu.

Chu explained that many of the dances include the juxtaposition of movement and music combined to tell a story.

“Dance is an expressive art form, articulating ideas, complexities of feelings, connections that cannot be refined through other means of communication,” Chu said.

The festival combines elements of engineering, visual arts, biological sciences and history, creating dances designed to celebrate, provoke and entertain, she said.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. in the Class of ’56 Dance Theater at the Schwartz Center. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the Schwartz Center Box office or online at http://schwartztickets.com.