Hope College will present its annual Spring Student Dance Concerts on Monday and Tuesday, April 11 and 12, at the Dow Center dance studio and on Monday and Tuesday, April 17 and 18, at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland at 8 p.m.

The public is invited. Admission is free.

The Student Dance Concerts are adjudicated. This year the guest adjudicator was Matthew Farmer, a 2004 Hope graduate who is co-artistic director of Rustic Groove Dance Co. and head of dance at Anderson University in Indiana.  Farmer majored in theatre and minored in dance at Hope, and also holds an MFA in dance performance/choreography from the University of Michigan.  His national and international performance credits include Peter Sparling Dance Company, Next Step Dance, Lehrer Dance and In The Body, and his choreography has been produced by a number of dance companies, theatres, schools and universities across the United States and Europe.

The adjudication for this spring's concert took place on Sunday and Monday, April 3 and 4, with the 28 student pieces separated into the two distinct programs. Part of adjudicator process includes an engagement of constructive dialogue with all the choreographers.

The pieces will range from solos to group works, and will incorporate the work of the Composition I students who are presenting their work after a semester of working on choreographic problems/challenges and developing basic choreographic skills.

The content of the pieces is solely up to the student choreographers, who create pieces based on their individual interest. They are responsible for music, sound, costume, prop and lighting choices with mentoring by the faculty co-coordinators Matthew Thornton and Steven Iannacone, along with technical advisor/designer Erik Alberg.

The April 11-12 concerts are among the highlights of the college's April 11-15 celebration of national Undergraduate Research Week, during which Hope is featuring the importance of student research and creative work college-wide.  Additional information about the week, including the complete schedule, is available online at www.hope.edu/resources/naturweek/Home.htm

General seating for the concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m.

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.  The Knickerbocker Theater is located at 86 E. Eighth St.