In this exciting collaborative live dance event, VanDance’s latest work JazzBird created by Artistic Director Ann Van Kuren delivers a spellbinding contemporary jazz and theatre rendition of The Firebird folktale for dance patrons of all ages. The program also presents the mesmerizing Steel Valley Rhythms project by independent professional choreographer Michele Dunleavy. Using Western Pennsylvania’s historical tie to the iron and steel industries captured in sound and movement, Steel Valley Rhythms combines percussive dancing with a focus on tap dance, along with live percussive music, images and video clips from Western Pennsylvania’s steel industry. Van Kuren and Dunleavy’s previous collaborations at The State Theatre have included Dancing for Hope and Time Framed and Other Dance Encounters. Both are Penn State faculty. With lighting by Cynthia Mazzant, this show is ideal for historians, students, educators and performance art patrons.