Title: Deeply Rooted

Choreography by Maggie Bailey

Composer: Joseph Minadeo

Dancers: Ximena Boza, Samantha Dahabi, Kelsey Favret, Megan Freifelder, Megan Pue, Jessie Wigley, Alex Young, (Lydia Brown, Emma Spieser)

When making decisions, we all have to find a balance of instinct, what we impulsively want to do, and intellect, what we know we should do. We can lean more towards one side, find a perfect balance, or completely disregard one. Through this piece, I want to show our deeply rooted need to connect with a like-minded person or persons, someone who shares our values and beliefs.

While creating this piece, I was extremely lucky to have dancers that were ready to experiment with movement in the studio. We used improvisation to represent ‘instinctive’ choices and decisions. I prompted the dancers with task work, such as creating a duet while keeping their heads touching, to represent ‘intellectual’ choices, or choices that required more contemplation and thought.

 

 

Title: Breaking (Away)

Choreography by Tim Brown

Composer: Nick Cave and Warren Ellis / Nathan Lanier

Dancers: Megan Freifelder, Megan Hall, Dani Mushinsky, Isabel Sandoval, Holly Robbins, Jessie Wigley, Tori Williams, Alex Young, (Kara Manning)

Based off a quote by Carson McCullers, “We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.” The piece ventures off into a world where dictatorship controls everything. Members of the society began to break away from this external control and find a new place where they have their own control.

 

Title: Whole, alone

Choreography by Sara Cart

Composer: Philip Glass

Dancers: Maggie Bailey, Tim Brown, Kelsey Favret, Emily Morris, Sloan Wightman, (Carlyn Cunningham, Maddie Goodman)

               Is white the absence of all color or is it a combination of all colors? Is it really white, pure, and whole when pieces of a puzzle, other colors, come together to make it or when it is left alone? When are humans in our most wholesome state? When we are a part of something? Or alone? Does it take other people, places, things to find yourself in a state of feeling truly whole. Are we able to be whole, alone? 

Whole, alone explores these questions through athletic movement and numerous shifts of scenario, reflecting the constant tuning that is required to find a state of being whole and maintain it. 

 

 

Title: Daphne’s Escape

Choreography by Eliza Ingle

Composer: Kronos Quartet

Dancer: Maggie Bailey

I am choreographing, “Daphne’s Escape” which was inspired by the image of a wood nymph metamorphosing into a tree and is based on the greek myth which describes the Greek God’s Apollo lustfull pursuit of Daphane. Daphne runs away from his advances and is soon forced to beg her father to save her – “Help me, Peneus! Open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger!” Consequently, he transfoms her into a tree for eternity.

For me the presence of a costume or sculpture within a dance lends another layer for movement and meaning to stem from. Collaborating with Janine Macabe, a talented costume designer, brings new ideas to the vission of the dance. The relationship of the physical body and nature is blended powerfully by this myth.

The music is an original composition by the Kronos Quartet. The dance will be a solo performed by Senior Dance Major, Maggie Bailey.

 

Title: Soukous

Choreography by Julia Rodriguez

Composer: Magic System

Dancers: Lydia Brown, Cecile Neidig, Jody Byrd, Kaylynn Lowery, Sloan Wightman, Per’chea Nunally, (Carly Harward, Carly Deihm, Victoria Conely, Ximena Boza, Kara Manning, Ashley Sears)

               Our guest artist, Julia Rodriguez is choreographing two pieces for the Spring Dance Concert, Embracing Pangaea.

The music for the first is a song called “Premier Gaou” by the group Magic System from the West African nation Côte d’Ivoire. The song is in the zouglou genre which is a popular style of music in many west African nations. The choreography contains elements of traditional/historical West African movement combined with modern West African dance styles such as zouglou and soukous. Rodriquez has also included some elements of brazilian and West Indian dance to create a dynamic piece that demonstrates how the unity of many dance styles, fused into one choreography, can create an experience that is engaging and stimulating for the audience. 

 

 

Title: Cha Cha

Choreography by Julia Rodriguez

Composer: Salsa Celtica

Dancers: Sloan Wightman, Lydia Brown, Cecile Neidig, Carly Deihm, Per’chea Nunally, Ashley Sears, Carly Harward, Victoria Conely, (Kara Manning, Ximena Boza)

The second piece, a cha-cha, choreographed to the dance “El Sol de la Noche” by Salsa Celtica, is also a fusion piece which includes elements of traditional, folkloric cha-cha combined with modern Salsa and hip-hop elements.

In a global society where the art, dance, and music that we create can no longer be considered “pure” -(Belonging to only one ethnicity or race of people)-  it is important for us to recognize how the fusion of our many different cultures allows for a more beautiful expression of our humanity. This concept is expressed beautifully in a favorite quote of mine by Abdu’l-Baha:

“Consider the flowers of a garden. Though differing in kind, color, form and shape, yet…this diversity increaseth their charm and addeth unto their beauty. How unpleasing to the eye if all the flowers and plants, the leaves and blossoms, the fruit, the branches and the trees of that garden were all of the same shape and color! Diversity of hues, form and shape enricheth and adorneth the garden, and heighteneth the effect thereof. ”

 

 

Title: Dreamtime

Choreography by Megan Pue

Composer: Gabrielle Roth

Dancers: Carly Deihm, Kelsey Favret, Carly Harward, Cecile Neidig, Per’chea Nunally, Holly Robbins, Isabel Sandoval, Tori Williams, Sloan Wightman, (Tory Bowers, Carrie Zollinger)

Dreamtime is a contemporary western dance inspired by Australian Aboriginals. The dance is based on the aboriginal’s belief in dreamtime. Dreamtime is the time when the earth was first created and spirits emerged from the mud to create the plants, animals, and people. All movement is inspired by original Corrobee style dance, which is performed during dreamtime rituals.

 

 

Title: Sheathed

Choreography by Pam O’Briant

Composer: John Adams

Dancers: Samantha Dahabi, Kaitlyn Fulford, Carly Harward, Cecile Neidig, Alexa Nickell, (Lydia Brown, Victoria Conely)

My piece is based on a dream that I had. I took the dream to mean how toxic it is to hold things inside, to not say or speak what you know or need to express.  Relating to Embracing Pangaea, it could also express the frustration in this era of instant information. We are able to know so much about the world, yet what do we do with all of this information?

 

 

Title: variations from Napoli

Choreography by Gretchen McLaine

Composer: E. Helsted, G. Rossini, N.W. Gade, H.S. Paulli, and H.C. Lumbye

Dancers: Claire Ahlin, Tim Brown, Samantha Dahabi, Destiny Dahl, Jill Goyin, Kara Manning, Victoria Smith, Jessie Wigley

Napoli was choreographed by August Bournonville and premiered in 1842. Created during the height of ballet’s Romantic movement, Napoli served as a stark contrast with its celebratory scenes and a joyous finale. The French-born Bournonville debuted as a dancer in the Paris Opera Ballet, but soon thereafter moved to Copenhagen with his father, who was appointed to lead the Royal Danish Ballet. August eventually eclipsed his father’s dancing and choreographic abilities, and is known as the most influential Ballet Master in the Danish troupe’s history. After a public argument with the King of Denmark, Bournonville spent a year in Naples, Italy, where he became enchanted with the vibrancy of the city. Napoli was a result of this time abroad and signified his successful return to Denmark. Since its premiere, more than 700 performances of this ballet have been given by the Royal Danish Ballet alone, and many other choreographers have adapted the story and movements to make it one of the most celebrated ballets coming out of the Romantic Era.

 

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