Performing Arts
PERFORMANCE SERIES PRODUCTIONS
2024-2025
UTC Live!
UTC Live! is the successor to the performing arts series formerly known as the Patten Performances, which was inaugurated by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1980 as the Dorothy Patten Fine Arts Series, in honor of one of Chattanooga’s most famous performing artists.
UTC Live! seeks out engaging performances from noted artists that are out of the mainstream. This year’s four events include extraordinary story-telling experiences along with songwriting and musical performance of the highest order.
The UTC Live! Concert Series presents the Faculty Showcase Concert, featuring performances by applied faculty in a program of solo and chamber works. This special event highlights the artistry and expertise of UTC’s music faculty, offering an evening of inspiring and diverse repertoire for the campus and community.
Bridgman | Packer Dance Presents Ghost Factory
Friday, March 28, 2025
UTC Fine Arts Center, Hayes Concert Hall
Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, Co-Artistic Directors of Bridgman|Packer Dance, have collaborated in choreography and performance since 1978. These Guggenheim Fellows in Choreography and 2017 Bessie Awardees are acclaimed for their innovative integration of choreography and video technology that explodes the partnering form into a magically populated stage where image and reality collide. Ghost Factory is the latest in their body of acclaimed and genre-breaking work that features their "Video Partnering"- the integration of live performance and video technology. Inspired by the residents and vast deserted factories of Johnson City, an upstate New York town, Ghost Factory is a compelling work that reveals remnants of a past era through a contemporary lens. Live performance merges with haunting video imagery of abandoned factory buildings, evoking the humanity these spaces once held and bringing to life the long-forgotten stories buried in their walls. The duet form explodes into a kaleidoscopic wonder, all in one breathtaking evening of dance.
Ghost Factory is Chattanooga's story, as well. People who once made middle-class livings with a high school diploma - or less - struggled to make ends meet working two or three jobs (if they could find them) as the foundries and other industries closed in the 1970s and `80s. With this in mind, UTC Communications students are contributing to Places With Hidden Stories, Bridgeman | Packer Dance's traveling video installation featuring interviews of workers and residents who have been displaced in our current economy. This presentation will be installed in the Fine Arts Center Lobby for viewing prior to and after the performance before it moves on to the next city where Ghost Factory will be performed. We encourage you to come early and stay after the performance to view these stories from Chattanooga and across the country.