Dance Science Students Take The Lead In All Aspects Of Choreography Showcase
Students in the Dance Science program will share performances that they have led from start to finish in the Student Choreography Showcase on Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 9 at 1 p.m. at the Dance Black Box Theater at the Physical Education Activity Program Building, Room 207.
The showcase was entirely produced by the students, including design, lighting and choreography. Tickets are $7, available at the MSC Box Office website.
Modern, contemporary and jazz dance will be featured through 10 performances. More than 30 dancers are involved, with 10 student choreographers, for the hour-and-a-half production.
The show’s first steps were made at the beginning of the fall semester. Carisa Armstrong, program director and associate professor, encouraged students in high-level composition courses to run the show to highlight student talent.
“The show has been organized by a student committee of juniors and seniors with minimal faculty guidance,” she said. “We are focused on creating self-sufficient professionals and these students have really stepped up and taken on a large responsibility with this show. I am excited to see the works they have created for this year.”
The faculty will choose two works to represent the program at the American College Dance Association’s South-Central Conference in March, Armstrong said.
Madison Calvez, senior, said she was eager to work on the student-led production, including learning the behind-the-scenes work in costume design and lighting cues. She is co-choreographing a performance alongside fellow student Cally Hall.
“It has been interesting to combine our ideas together as choreographers, and the process has been super-experimental,” Calvez said. “We play with a lot of different patterns, and we are just trying to push ourselves. There have also been a lot of happy accidents where we thought, ‘Oh, that looked really cool, let’s keep that in.’”
Abi McKinney, junior, said this is her first time choreographing within the program, and said she has appreciated the complexity of putting on a full production.
“One of the most challenging things for me has been not only viewing my piece as a dancer and a choreographer, but also viewing it as an audience member,” McKinney said. “And having to think about how it is going to come off to people who don’t really understand the intricacies that we focus on every day. I have been leaning into that, and I want to create something that is understandable for an audience member and interesting for the eye.”
Calvez said performances will encompass a theme or story, or focus on individuality and style chosen by the choreographer.
Eliza Milner, senior, said she is choreographing a piece that does not have music, but rather relies on the sound dancers make on stage.
“I’m hoping for those who don’t see a lot of live performance that they can get comfortable with the idea that dance doesn’t have to have noise in order to still have a story or a meaning,” Milner said. “Sometimes you get really attached to the music of a piece, but it is really the choreographers’ decisions with the dancers on how they can make that story itself.”
Terra Fiedler, senior, has 19 dancers in her piece, and said it was inspired by the film “La La Land,” starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. There are three sections of the piece that go through the stages of a relationship.
“I do portray it in a romantic sense, but it could also be related in a platonic way of how you gain and lose people throughout your life, and how you are constantly meeting new people,” Fiedler said. “But in the end, there is a meaning to it all. The first section is of them meeting each other. The second section is a duet between the two of them, and the last section is emulating the breaking point of the relationship and the aftermath.”
McKinney said she hopes the audience can take in the versatility and creativity of the dance program. She said she wants each of the performers to be reminded of what inspires them to dance.
“Dance is my passion, because as you are dancing you just absorb the light, the audience goes away and your brain just kind of shuts off,” McKinney said. “We spent the whole semester rehearsing, so it’s engraved in our brain. When there is no other option but to do what you have been rehearsing, you get to let go and do what you love.”
