Hope College will co-host this year's Michigan Dance Council Dance Day on Saturday, Oct. 4, at the Knickerbocker Theatre.

Hope College will co-host this year's Michigan Dance Council Dance Day on Saturday, Oct. 4, at the Knickerbocker Theatre.

The events will include Master Classes in ballet, modern, jazz, rhythm/tap, and swing. The event will culminate in a public Showcase Concert at 3:30 p.m. in the Knickerbocker Theatre that will feature competition for the state-wide Maggie Allesee New Choreography Award.

Choreographers nominated for the award include Dawn Marie McIlhargey of InSync Dance Theatre, an affiliate of the department of dance at Hope. The concert will also feature a guest performance by Aerial Dance Theater, also an affiliate of the college's department of dance, whose co-artistic director Linda Graham is a past Maggie Allesee Choreography award winner.

In addition to McIlhargey, choreographers with work nominated for the award are: Jordeen Ivanov-Ericson with the Institute of Music and Dance at Marygrove; Sandra Federico, a 1996 Hope graduate from South Lyon who is with Pinckney Community High School; Mary C. Geiger with Michigan Classic Ballet Company; Kelly Gottesman with the Maggie Allesee Department of Dance of Wayne State University; Erin Malley; Anne Bak Marine with Eisenhower Center Dance Ensemble; Dawn Marie McIlhargey with InSync Dance Theatre; and Kay Rediers with Detroit Dance Collective.

In addition to Aerial Dance Theater, Debra Kirkland with M.L. King Dance Workshop will perform as a guest artist.

InSync Dance Theatre will present a seven-minute edited version of "State of Dysfunction," a semi-autobiographical piece portraying a struggling group of pedestrians. The piece was a finalist at the international level at the Jazz World Congress in early August. McIlhargey, currently a faculty member at the Grand Rapids Ballet, has been trained in the Giordano technique and performed with Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago in addition to operating her own school "DanceWorks" in Grand Rapids. InSync Dance Theatre will present a full concert at Hope on Friday-Saturday Jan. 23-24, at 8 p.m at the Knickerbocker Theatre.

"State of Dysfunction" will be performed by Hope College students, including: junior Lindsay Brown of Boise, Idaho; junior Dawn Flandermeyer of St. Charles, Mo.; junior Sarah Gardner of New Castle, Pa.; junior Dolores Sanchez of Whiting, Ind.; junior Mari Stuppy of Dowagiac; and junior Jessica Yokas of Oelwein, Iowa. The dance captain is senior Katherine Budris of Libertyville, Ill.

Aerial Dance Theater will present a developed version of "Bolero" by Steven Iannacone, who is the company's co-artistic director. The dancers will be: Melissa Altobelli, a 1998 graduate from Grand Haven; senior Cynthia Bachhuber of Madison, Wis.; senior Kathleen Davenport of Gainesville, Fla.; senior Matthew Farmer of North Muskegon; senior Colette Harris of Chicago, Ill.; senior Tim Heck of Libertyville, Ill.; junior Jeffrey Kurtze of Elkhart, Ind.; senior Dan Kwiatkowski of Cheboygan; junior Jessica Mumford of Kalamazoo; Lisa Sachs, an area resident who is a graduate of Western Michigan University; Amy Vertalka, a 2001 graduate from Grand Ledge; and senior Kara Wilson of Fort Wayne, Ind.Several members of the Hope faculty will be among the master class instructors, including: Graham; Iannacone; and Rosanne Barton-DeVries, who is also co-director with InSync. In addition, Hope senior Erin Rupert of Traverse City will also teach a master class.

Tickets for the Showcase Concert will be available at the door for $7 for general admission and $5 for students and senior citizens. Information about the master classes may be obtained by contacting Lynnette Overby at (517) 432-5578.