This year, four dance majors from the UW have been invited to Ravenna, Italy, to perform their piece, 3, for the dance festival Anticorpi XL, Network Di Giovane Danza Di Autore (Showcase of Young Dance and Choreography). To support their accomplishment, the four dancers held two benefit concerts at Meany Hall Aug. 9 and 10.

Devin McDermott, Katherine Riggs, Anh Nguyen and Alice Gosti hosted the For 3 benefit concerts to raise money for their September trip.

“Instead of just saying thank you, we wanted to give back what we’re showing,” Gosti said. “We’re dancers; this is our way to let [the supporters] have an experience.”

Attendees were treated to an array of four live dance pieces and four videos that showcased the dancing, directing and editing talents of several UW students.

Award-winning dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp created a piece called The Fugue, which was performed at the concert.

Sponsored by the dance program at the UW, the benefit concert raised more than $1,100.

Although Riggs suffered from a sore throat and was unable to perform at the concerts, she will still travel to Italy for the festival.

Gosti was unaware of the dance festival until receiving information from her former dance studio in Italy. A recent boom in government funding for the arts has made it possible for many European countries to fund art festivals and projects geared toward people younger than 30 years old.

“Before, you had to be lucky to choreograph a piece [in Italy],” Gosti said. “Now there are lots of festivals; it’s like a hope for dance in Italy.”

Gosti wanted to create a collective piece and a name that would reflect the idea of dance and the audience’s active experience with the dance.

The name 3 refers to the number of performers in the dance and from the idea that geometry and architecture are imbedded in the structure of the piece. The piece began as an experiment, she said.

“It was the study of the distinction between mere execution of movement and performance authored by individuals,” Gosti said. “I wanted to see how you can perform constantly instead of execute [choreography].”

With such a different idea for their performance, the women were careful not to over-rehearse the piece.

“We want to keep it fresh,” Gosti said. “The idea is that the same piece can be executed without motions.”

3 debuted at the UW Dance Majors Concert in March and won Gosti an award for outstanding achievement in choreography from the UW Dance Program.

Gosti, who has dual citizenship in the United States and Italy, applied for the festival in Italy after creating the piece. The festival is a first for the dance program. When it comes to dancing in other countries, students have previously either studied abroad or gone on Exploration Seminars.

“I feel like [this opportunity] is touching the tip of the iceberg,” Nguyen said. “I’m really excited, and there are many ideas about what to do next.”

Aside from the festival performance, 3 has the potential to tour elsewhere in Italy.

The festival is organized by different theaters in the region, Gosti said. Other theaters will attend the festival, and if representatives from the other theaters enjoy the performance, the UW dancers will be invited to their theaters.

With this opportunity, the dancers hope to break boundaries and build bridges in Italy and Seattle.

“We got a lot of strong support from our dance community, and then we are getting support from the community overseas,” Nguyen said. “We hope to reach other [points of view] as to what performance art means.”