Campus Spotlight

December 4, 2023

<p>The inaugural production in the newest building on the RIT campus, <em>AstroDance II: Across the Universe</em>, premiered Dec. 1 to 3 and featured a variety of dance, aerial and circus arts, and augmented reality. The performances were held in the new state-of-the-art Sklarsky Glass Box Theater inside the SHED. The theater has 90 retractable fixed theater seats, with options to more than double the capacity. <em>AstroDance II</em> seated 130 for each performance.</p>

Photo by Alycia Wachtel

The inaugural production in the newest building on the RIT campus, AstroDance II: Across the Universe, premiered Dec. 1 to 3 and featured a variety of dance, aerial and circus arts, and augmented reality. The performances were held in the new state-of-the-art Sklarsky Glass Box Theater inside the SHED. The theater has 90 retractable fixed theater seats, with options to more than double the capacity. AstroDance II seated 130 for each performance.

six dancers on a stage, bent at the waist with their arms in the air towards their faces as if admiring something bright.

Photo by Alycia Wachtel

AstroDance II: Across the Universe, premiered Dec. 1 to 3 and engaged performers and audience members on a shared journey of discovery, innovation, artistry, and education by combining ballet, modern dance, tap dance, hip-hop dance, step dance, and astrophysics, along with technologies of motion capture, projection mapping, and augmented reality interactive experiences.
an aerial ribbon performer suspended upside down and bent at the waist, with her legs intertwined in the ribbons.

Photo by Alycia Wachtel

AstroDance II: Across the Universe, premiered Dec. 1 to 3 and engaged performers and audience members on a shared journey of discovery, innovation, artistry, and education by combining ballet, modern dance, tap dance, hip-hop dance, step dance, and astrophysics, along with technologies of motion capture, projection mapping, and augmented reality interactive experiences.
a dancer on stage raised several feet in the air, with her skirt draped down her legs to the floor, with four other dancers standing around her.

Photo by Alycia Wachtel

AstroDance II: Across the Universe, premiered Dec. 1 to 3 and engaged performers and audience members on a shared journey of discovery, innovation, artistry, and education by combining ballet, modern dance, tap dance, hip-hop dance, step dance, and astrophysics, along with technologies of motion capture, projection mapping, and augmented reality interactive experiences.
six people lined up a stage, one holding a bouquet of flowers and another being presented a plaque.

Photo by Alycia Wachtel

Following the premiere on Dec. 1, RIT benefactors Ruth and Frank Sklarsky were honored for their dedication to creating a creative space for students and community members. Pictured, from left, are David Munson, RIT president; Erica Haskell, director of RIT’s School of Performing Arts; Ruth and Frank Sklarsky; and Thomas Warfield, RIT’s director of dance, who conceived, directed, and choreographed the show in collaboration with Manuela Campanelli, director of RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation.
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