Guest artist Rebecca Bryant, assistant professor of visual and performing arts at Purdue University, a member of the Lower Left Performance Collective (dance/performance art) and co-founder of the Past Modern Performance Duo (music/dance/theater).

“Three in Two,” an improvised evening of dance and music, featuring guest artists Rebecca Bryant and Don Nichols, along with associate professor of dance Sandra Mathern-Smith, will take place at on Saturday, Oct. 24, in two sets, 7:30 and 9 p.m. at the Mix Lab Gallery (202 Mulberry Street). The concert is free and open to the public.

The title, “Three in Two,” refers to three artists, two sets. Bryant and Mathern-Smith will collaborate, improvising in response to each other, the performance space and the music played live by Nichols. They will discover thematic ideas, creating moment to moment interactions, and develop the work while it is happening. Bryant and Mathern-Smith share skills in contact improvisation and the “ensemble thinking” work developed by Nina Martin, a veteran and leader in the field. Framed as contemporary dance, each unique set will last about 40 minutes.

A dancer, choreographer and improviser, Bryant is an active performer and educator specializing in dance and interdisciplinary performance. She is an assistant professor of visual and performing arts at Purdue University, a member of the Lower Left Performance Collective (dance/performance art) and co-founder of the Past Modern Performance Duo (music/dance/theater). She holds a Master of Fine Arts in dance from University of California at Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Arts in visual art from the University of California at San Diego. In addition to performing throughout California and around the United States, Bryant has performed in Mexico, Germany, Sweden and Denmark and has taught contact improvisation in Italy and Argentina.

Nichols is a percussionist, composer and improviser dedicated to artistic innovation and multidisciplinary performance. In 2000, he became the first percussionist to study in Sweden on a Fulbright Scholarship. Nichols frequently tours throughout the United States and abroad. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, Festival Agora in Paris, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, the Festival Otoño in Mexico, the Melbourne International Percussion Festival and the Subarctic Festival of the North in Sweden. Nichols received his Doctor of Musical Arts and his Master of Arts from the University of California at San Diego, a Master of Arts from Musikhögskolan in Piteå, Sweden, and his Bachelor of Arts in music performance from Northwestern University.

Mathern-Smith has been performing and creating work since 1983. She has an ongoing commitment to working collaboratively and to improvisation as a performance form. Mathern-Smith has received Individual Artist Fellowships in Choreography from the Ohio Arts Council and has been awarded more than 20 grants for her work from the Ohio Arts Council, Arts Midwest, Target Stores, Greater Columbus Arts Council, Wisconsin Arts Board and the Portland Oregon Arts Commission, among others. She teaches contemporary technique, improvisation, production and choreography at Denison. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she received her Bachelor of Arts from Portland State University and her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.