Some students constantly search for a perfect evening with good eats, a little conversation and quality entertainment. The upcoming concert, “Chocolate, Dance and Conversation,” performed by the Ohio State University School of Dance, is likely to satisfy all those needs and, if nothing else, satisfy that end-of-the-quarter chocolate craving.

“Chocolate, Dance and Conversation” will be performed at 8 p.m Dec. 3 and 4 in Sullivant Hall Theater. The concert is a diversion from the typical lights-down, serious dance concert format. Attendees will be offered chocolates and other baked goods, and will indulge in conversation not only with one another, but also with the performers.

Susan Van Pelt Petry, chair of the Department of Dance, said the event is not only a concert, but also a social event.

“It’s hard to get people to come to live events,” she said. “We’re all so used to virtual everything. You can’t get this on the Web. You have to physically be there.”

Petry said “Chocolate, Dance and Conversation” will offer five pieces created by professional dance artists and performed by OSU undergraduate and graduate students.

She said each of the pieces, like the chocolates, will have its own flavor.

Petry collaborated with her photographer husband, Ric Petry, to create a piece they refer to as “animated photography.” The creation involved Ric taking still photographs of Susan’s dance movements, then transplanting them into motion graphic software.

“At first you think you’re looking at a still image, but then you realize things are moving,” she said.

Petry described a piece in which the audience will divide into two groups and move to a dance studio to see dance professional Trisha Brown’s piece titled, “Sololos.” The title palindrome reflects the dance, as dancers perform forward and then backward. With no music to guide them, the dancers receive instructions from another dancer to break apart, then reunite in unison.

“It’s a structural game,” Petry said. “If you’re a math geek or engineer or you like Soduku, you’ll like this piece. This is not just a bunch of pretty dancers … it’s like a mind game.”

Lecturer Shawn Hove will perform “at 4th and Pine,” an urban chic piece. Petry describes Hove’s work as a bit darker and serious than some of the other pieces.

Professor John Giffen, a Juilliard School of Music graduate, collaborated with OSU alumna Mary Williford-Shade to create “Out of the Woods,” a dance that intertwines Williford-Shade’s experiences as a woman with the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood.”

Although he used specific ideas to create the piece, Giffen said his strange little piece is open to interpretation.

“It’s open-ended for people to see something in it,” he said. “To allow for some interesting ambiguity.”

Lecturer Meghan Durham will perform “Guitar Heroes” with the help of Blue Man Group member Clifton Hyde. Durham said the piece, which is based on the popular video game, is a snapshot of the contemporary experience.

“The choreography plays with ideas of transparency and pretense as related to the ‘Guitar Hero’ phenomenon,” Durham said in an e-mail. “Situating the concept of human vulnerability inside of hyper-expression and virtual reality/technology.”

Durham said she hopes the laid back, casual atmosphere of “Chocolate, Dance and Conversation” will allow the audience and performers alike to experience how modern dance can be both culturally enriching and entertaining.

“Dance can be integrated into living activities rather than remain fully separate from daily life,” she said. “The various pieces show dances in different spaces and challenge the formality of the proscenium space by moving in and out of it with the audience.”

Giffen said the dance concert will be like an evening among friends.

“It will not allow [the audience] to be the fly on the wall, the voyeur,” he said. “It breaks that fourth wall.”

Tickets for “Chocolate, Dance and Conversation” are $10 for general admission and $5 for seniors, OSU staff and students, and can be purchased at Sullivant Hall Theater, located at 1813 N. High St.

For more information, call 614-292-7977.

Amanda Forbes can be reached at [email protected].