UO faculty, and guest, show off dances.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The University of Oregon's annual celebration of faculty choreography will also highlight new work by internationally renowned guest choreographer Gabriel Masson in three performances this week.

The ``Dance 2006'' concert features Masson's "Lines, Arcs, Angles, and Sound," a culmination of a two-week residency including classes, lectures and performances. The work is a collaboration with Christian Cherry, director of music in dance.

Using the stage as a kind of giant Etch-a-Sketch, Masson worked with seven dancers to craft a geometrical and physical response to Cherry's score.

Also on the program:

Assistant Professor Walter Kennedy's "Ghost String," which premiered in the Hult Center's Silva Concert Hall in the fall of 2005. Kennedy's piece is an abstract interpretation of a score by Jeffrey Stolet, professor of computer music.

"Coming Home," a new work by faculty member Rita Honka, was inspired by a series of trips to her hometown of Detroit, and it attempts to capture the intensity of big city life. The movements are performed to the music of James Asher.

Associate Professor Jenifer Craig has been observing and listening to the cell phone era as it has permeated our everyday lives. Her work "Cell Life" is a wry reflection on this modern-day phenomenon.

Kennedy's new work, "I Never Said," will be done in collaboration with Troy Rogers, a former Oregon music student, who is now a doctoral student at the University of Virginia. It is a tense, demanding piece for 10 dancers and touches on ambiguous aggression and unspoken competition

Honka will revisit her 2001 duet "Familiars," which explores intertwining themes of friendship and familiarity in movement to the resonant pulse of Greg Ellis' "Minus One."

The concert will be performed at 8 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday at the Dougherty Dance Theatre, Gerlinger Annex third floor, 1484 University St. Tickets are available at the door for $10, $5 for students and seniors.