Hope College will present its annual fall student dance concerts on Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 22 and 23, at the Dow Center dance studio, and on Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 6 and 7, at 8 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland.

The public is invited.  Admission is free.

At each location there will be separate programs, with nine students' works being presented in the intimate "white box" Dow studio and 10 different pieces in the traditional setting at the Knickerbocker Theatre.  The doors will open at 7:30 p.m.

Hip Hop Anonymous will present a new group work during the Nov. 22-23 Dow concerts that takes an intriguing look at the circus world. During the Dec. 6-7 Knickerbocker concerts, the students of Composition II class will present "Operation American Dream," which examines the relationship between the "red carpet" world of fashion/ celebrity/ conformity and the world of military/ war/ uniformity. Other student works inspired by painting, poetry, sculpture, human history, spoken word, personal relationships and ritual will also be presented across the four evenings.

The Knickerbocker concerts will also feature lighting designs by student designers from the Intro to Dance Production I class with supervision by Erik Alberg. Student choreographers and designers collaborate on the production of the works and their final look on stage.

All student works are adjudicated before the concerts, and then proceed to either the Dow studio concert or the Knickerbocker. This year's adjudicator was Thayer Jonutz, who is a full-time faculty member at OaklandUniversity. Thayer, who holds a bachelor's degree in modern dance from Brigham Young University and is an MFA graduate of the University of Michigan, danced professionally with Peter Sparling Dance Company and Repertory Dance Theatre, and is co-founder and co-artistic director of Mise en Place Dance. He has danced in, and had his works performed in, Tonga, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea and India, and participated in the Wave Rising Series and Dumbo Dance Festival, both in New York City, during this past year. Thayer spent two days with the students, and concert coordinators Matthew Thornton and Steven Iannacone, providing insight and challenging questions for the young choreographers and for their works.

The Knickerbocker Theater is located at 86 E. Eighth St. The Dow Center dance studio is on the second floor of the Dow Center, located at 168 E. 13th St., on the corner of 13th Street and Columbia Avenue.