University of Minnesota's Theatre Arts & Dance Department (UMTAD) is pleased to announce the Dance Program has hired New York based dance artist Scott Rink as a contracted Faculty Assistant Professor. Beginning in the upcoming spring semester of 2014, Mr. Rink will be teaching a combination of Modern Dance and Dance Composition courses. "We are delighted to welcome four -time Sage Cowles Land Grant guest artist Scott Rink back to the our department," commented Ananya Chatterjea, Dance Program Coordinator. "Scott brings a rich wealth of professional experience as a choreographer/director to share with our students. His energy, vision and artistry are highly regarded both on stage and in the studio classroom."
As a teacher Mr. Rink has held visiting professorship positions at Harvard University, The Ailey School, UNCSA, University of Minnesota (Cowles Chair 2013, 2003, 2000, 1996), University of Utah, among others and taught master classes throughout the US, Europe and South America. Scott Rink has performed in the companies of Eliot Feld, Elisa Monte, Karole Armitage and Lar Lubovitch.
As a director/choreographer, Rink's work has been praised as "an unusual hybrid genre in which dance is part of a larger theatrical whole" (The Village Voice) using the dramatic text as a musical score where "patches of pure dance heighten dramas like light shining from beneath colored glass" (New York Times). For this fall's Dance Revolutions at the Barker Center for Dance, Rink re-created Here We Are based on a short story by Dorothy Parker, in which he links a duet and quartet with dancers and speakers. Premiered in 2003 at the University of Minnesota, the work performed by University students was selected to be presented the following spring at the 2004 American College Dance Festival national performances at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center. Mr. Rink is a returning Cowles Visiting Artist who first was in residence re-staging a work by Lar Lubovitch in 1996.
Rink's Off-Broadway choreography credits include, Queen of The Mist (Transport Group, Dir. Jack Cumming III), Hello Again (Transport Group, Dir. Jack Cummings III), Being Audrey (Transport Group, Dir. Jack Cummings III), Crossing Brooklyn (Transport Group,Dir. Jack Cummings III) Songs For a New World (George St. Playhouse, Dir. Jack Cummings III), Nor'mal (Transport Group, Dir. Jack Cummings III), Minimum Wage (45 Bleeker, Dir. Guy Stroman).
His commissioned works include dances for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre II, American Ballet Theatre II, Oakland Ballet, Minnesota Dance Theatre, Repertory Dance Theatre, The Ailey School, Harvard University, and UNCSA. Mr. Rink has created a number of works for danceRINK performed in NYC most notably at Joyce Soho, Symphony Space, American Theatre of Actors, HERE, The Kitchen and Tribeca Performing Arts Center as well as other national and international dates. He has adapted, directed and choreographed three dance films from the works of Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut.
Department Chair Carl Flink commented, "Scott is a multi-faceted artist who brings nationally recognized depth as a performer, dance maker and instructor into our dance program's research and learning community."
Mr. Rink's assistant choreography credits include: BROADWAY The King & I (Dir. Christopher Renshaw), Allegro Encore Production (Dir. Susan Schulman); REGIONAL What The World Needs Now ,Roundabout Production (Dir. Gillian Lynne); TV World Music Awards (Chor. Lar Lubovitch); CONCERT DANCE American Ballet Theater, Royal Danish Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (Chor. Lar Lubbovitch).
