Dance Students And Faculty Traveling To Washington, D.C., To Present Works Selected For National College Dance Festival
Dance students and faculty are heading to Washington, D.C., to present work at the ACDA National College Dance Festival, which begins Friday at Georgetown University and George Washington University.
The works were choreographed by Bailey Zettler, senior, and Abby Williams Chin, lecturer. They were among 12 works selected from the American College Dance Association South-Central Conference in March at Texas State University, which featured performances from universities in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi.
Zettler was selected to present “Obstinate” at the national festival. Chin’s work “It’s Catching” was chosen as an alternate.
Diane Bedford, clinical associate professor and section chair of Dance, Music and Theatre Performance, said it is “incredibly unusual” for two works from the same school to be chosen for the national event.
“When the selections for the national festival were posted, I felt incredibly proud and honored to be part of this program,” she said. “It felt really special to see our students and our faculty be given that kind of recognition.”
‘Obstinate’
Zettler began choreographing and designing the lighting for “Obstinate” last spring during a Concert Choreography course taught by Bedford. It was performed in the Student Choreography Showcase in January and at Perpetual Motion in February.
“Obstinate” started as a movement study. Zettler created a theme in the piece based on the performers repeating a motion with their arms.
“This arm motif is just three simple movements that I came up with while looking in a mirror,” Zettler said. “As the process grew, I was thinking of how there can be chaos behind such a strong point of grounding and predictability. To emphasize the motif, the dancers are in gray outfits and have a piece of KT tape across their right arm from the top of their shoulder down to their fingertips.”
Zettler said the arm motions show how three simple movements can illustrate a connection to other choreography in the piece.
“I think there is something that is really special about telling a story through movement, and how each dancer doing the same movement is actually different,” she said. “I love choreographing, because it’s a way to give dancers a voice when they are performing or telling the audience something they are feeling.”
Zettler recalled the rush of emotions when “Obstinate” was chosen for the national festival.
“I was in my room and one of my friends called me, telling me to check my email,” she said. “All of a sudden, I started getting texts and calls from my cast and family. I was so excited. It all hit me at once and I couldn’t stop crying.”
“Obstinate” is performed by Lenzy Zettler, Rylee Braun, Riley Emler, Macie Everitt, Courtney Hejnicki, Macey Vasquez, Lindsay Walker and Melanie Wills.
‘It’s Catching’
Chin said she choreographed “It’s Catching” based on the Dancing Plague of 1518 in Strasburg, Germany, where people danced themselves to exhaustion as it became a psychogenic event. She said the work investigates how humans physically cope with extreme stress and irreconcilable circumstances in “seemingly illogical ways.”
“This piece explores the spaces between the physiological and psychological needs in relationship to societal norms and cultural understandings of physical labor and productivity,” Chin said. “We incorporated research from tension and trauma release exercises, therapeutic tremoring and polyvagal theory into the somatic experience of the work.”
The work was performed at the Brazos Contemporary Dance Festival in September and during Perpetual Motion in February. The 10-minute contemporary piece features a musical score created in collaboration with Dr. Will Connor, lecturer in the Performance and Visual Studies program. Chin said she felt honored her work was selected.
“I watched a lot of beautiful work at this year’s ACDA conference,” she said. “So, for the adjudicators to connect with the work is a lovely compliment, as well as a testament to the performers’ presence and hard work in the piece.”
“It’s Catching” is performed by Rylee Braun, Brook Dryden, Sommer Edgerson, Courtney Hejnicki, Abi McKinney, Rachel Stoner, Macey Vasquez, Melanie Wills, Bailey Zettler and Lenzy Zettler.
