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The University of South Carolina’s Betsy Blackmon Dance Company will present its Fall Concert Nov. 6-7 at the Koger Center for the Arts.
Show time is 7:30 p.m. nightly. Admission is $15 for students, $20 for USC faculty/staff, military, and seniors 60+, and $22 for the public. Tickets may be purchased online at kogercenterforthearts.com or by calling 803-251-2222. The Koger Center is located at 1051 Greene St.
The repertory for the concert includes:
- Controcorrente, the choreographic debut of Susan E. Anderson Artist-in-Residence Kathryn Morgan, former soloist with New York City and Miami City Ballets and prominent dance educator/influencer
- Birthday Variations by Joffrey Ballet co-founder Gerald Arpino and Camellia by Joffrey choreographer Xavier Núñez, two works set on the Betsy Blackmon Dance Company during last spring’s residency with The Joffrey Ballet
- Where Orbits Touch, a new contemporary work by Associate Professor Jennifer Deckert
- Warm Hearts and Hot Feet by Associate Professor André Megerdichian, a rousing homage to 20th century dance innovators set to music from the Great American Songbook.
Morgan’s Controcorrente – Italian for “against the current” – bridges classic and contemporary dance forms to become, as she describes it, “neoclassical ballet with a twist.” The title nods to Morgan’s unconventional career path and her rise as a leading advocate for dancer wellness.
Morgan’s career started in 2006 with the New York City Ballet, where she quickly ascended to the rank of Soloist and danced until 2012, when she left to tend to health issues. In 2014, Morgan launched a popular YouTube channel dedicated to dancer education and promotion of mental and physical wellness in the dance community. She retired from performance in 2024 to devote herself full-time to teaching and advocacy work.
“Kathryn has established herself as a powerful voice for dancers and dancer advocacy,” says Jennifer Deckert, Director of the Betsy Blackmon Dance Program. “Her openness and warmth in sharing her own hardships within the professional dance world make her a wonderful role model for our students.”
“The ballet world is very closed off – it’s every man for himself,” Morgan says. “If I can make younger dancers’ lives easier, or even adult dancers’ lives, showing that you’re allowed to be a person and be in ballet, then I’ve done something worthwhile.”
We’re asking our students to step into work that is seen at the national and international level... And we’re inviting audiences to experience that world-class dance right here in Columbia.”
Associate Professor André Megerdichian
First performed by BBDC in April 2025, Birthday Variations and Camellia will be reprised for the Fall Concert, largely by the same dancers who performed in the spring. “Oftentimes in dance, you make a piece, have just a few nights to perform it, and then it’s done,” says André Megerdichian, rehearsal director for Camellia. “By restaging these works, our dancers aren’t learning steps anymore – they’re making it really personal and powerful.”
Núñez’s Camellia is a contemporary dance exploration on the life cycle of its namesake flower. “It’s sometimes hard to comprehend how one image of beauty can spark a vast creative work like this, with groups, solos and duets,” Megerdichian says. “I think Xavier found his inspiration and then let that drive his humanity to create this work.”
Birthday Variations is a 1986 Arpino work that The New York Times called “a sparkling showpiece of classical dancing,” set to music by Giuseppe Verdi. “It’s a joyful celebration,” Deckert says. “And filled with some of the most difficult solos you will ever work on as a professional dancer.”
Deckert’s own Where Orbits Touch, inspired by imagery of the Milky Way, explores human connection through a series of duets and ensemble sections. “It’s really a piece about community,” Deckert says. “How we support each other and exist within each other’s worlds in a universal experience.”
Rounding out the program is Megerdichian’s Warm Hearts and Hot Feet, a vibrant and physically demanding homage to dance legends Martha Graham, José Limón, and Bob Fosse, set to standards from the Great American Songbook. “There’s a solo in the work that is probably the two-and-a-half hardest minutes of any dancer’s life, physically” he says. “The entire work asks students to not just technically perform but also deliver emotionally on a level that’s incredibly vulnerable.”
“We’re asking our students to step into work that is seen at the national and international level and be able to fulfill the expectations of those larger arenas,” Megerdichian says of the program’s challenging repertory. “And we’re inviting audiences to experience that world-class dance right here in Columbia.”
For more information about the Fall Concert or the Betsy Blackmon Dance Program at USC, contact Kevin Bush by phone at 803-777-9353 or via email at bushk@mailbox.sc.edu.