(Posted March 12, 2012)

Monica Bill Barnes & Co. performs Friday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m., in Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts at Juniata College.
Monica Bill Barnes & Co. performs Friday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m., in Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts at Juniata College.

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Monica Bill Barnes & Co. have been known to dance anywhere, in a fountain, on New York City streets, and on Friday, March 16, the graceful-yet-funny dance troupe will be onstage at 7:30 p.m. in Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts at Juniata College.

For tickets and information about the Juniata College Presents series, please call (814) 641-JTIX (5849). General admission tickets for single performances are $20, except where otherwise noted. Single-show tickets for seniors over age 65 and children age 18 and under are $12. Juniata College students are admitted free with a student ID.

Monica Bill Barnes is the principal choreographer for her company and has produced more than 12 evening-length dance works and dozens of dances for site-specific events such as a performance set to Diana Ross and the Supremes songs that took place in a fountain in New York's Bowling Green Park.

The dance company looks to find both humor and theatricality in each dance they perform and usually the witty and funny choreography makes the performance both thrilling and entertaining.

The troupe explores topics such as gangliness, shyness and myriad other topics about the quirkiness and awkwardness of life.

"Imagine an all-female, multigenerational, Elvis-crazed dance arena wherein hearts are broken but dreams come true and abiding love conquers all."

Dance Insider.

Barnes incorporates a wide range of music to pace her dance pieces, including such classical composers as Johann Sebastian Bach, Camille Saint-Saens, jazz artists such as Nina Simone and pop songwriters like Joe South, Tony Joe White, Burt Bachrach and Motown's Holland-Dozier-Holland writing team.

Dancers in the company include Monica Bill Barnes, Anna Bass, Celia Rowson Hall, and Charlotte Bydwell.

"Imagine an all-female, multigenerational, Elvis-crazed dance arena wherein hearts are broken but dreams come true and abiding love conquers all," writes a critic in Dance Insider.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.