Photo by Cecelia Brown
This past weekend, the fall faculty dance department show Blur showcased nine beautifully individual pieces, which included the choreography of five faculty members, two students, two guest artists, and one pre-show “bantaba.” The diverse and imaginative choreography performed on the stage of Palmer Auditorium captured the creative minds of the choreographers, sharing their vision to a multitude of dancers and their audience.
Blur began with an energetic West African “bantaba” choreographed by faculty members Shani Collins Achille and Susan Connelly. The dance consisted of twelve dancers costumed in brightly-colored traditional West African clothing. With the accompaniment of Issa Coulibaly and other percussionists on stage, the polyrhythmic and dynamic movement of the dance only further developed the audience’s excitement and anticipation for a fantastic show.
The chair of the dance department, David Dorfman, before introducing the show, mentioned that he didn’t need to ask the audience how they felt – it was obvious we were all excited for the impressive dancing soon to come. I know I was.
After Dorfman’s heart-felt and humorous introduction, the curtain was raised to two dancers on stage in silence. In “Wrapped,” choreographed by faculty member Lisa Race, the dancers were all wearing the same costume: black shirt, black leggings, and black skirt with a crinkly white paper scarf wrapped around the neck of the dancers. The piece was broken up into three sections, making it the dancers’ responsibility to perform a cohesive and splendid opening. The dancers were all paired off, performing similar choreography in groups—until they finally came together into one big circle and tied their paper scarves together. With an audible “go,” the dancers threw the paper up and leapt underneath, catching the paper at the last moment.
Breaking the connectivity of all the dancers in the circle, Khadija Griffith ’11 and visiting student from Boston University Stuart Meyers ’12 tangled themselves around the circle whirling towards the front of the stage, collecting all the scarves on their way and dismissing the other dancers as they went along. As the dancers met in the middle, they stopped moving, head-to-toe covered in paper. Trying to dance all wrapped up, their frustration with the paper translated into the relationship with each other. Eventually two other dancers returned back on stage to strip the paper off of Griffith and Meyers and suggest other articles of clothing for the dancers to wear. After a change of clothes, the third section of the piece consisted of a jovial and festive wedding-like dance to the song “Hit ‘Em Up Style,” composed by Dallas Austin and performed by the Carolina Chocolate Drops. As the dancers peeled off by twos, shimmying down the center, the piece fades out with the image of half of the cast spinning upside down in a split held by the arms of the other dancers.
Every fall dance department show, the faculty selects two student-choreographed works that originally debuted in the semester’s Dance Club show. The next piece was “The Strange Meeting of Slim, Ferdinand and Cody O’Neil” by senior dance major Kim Lusk. Wayne Ong ’11, wore a hat with horns transforming him into a bull with Ellie Whiteford ’11 as his Matador. They danced and chased each other around, as Jacob Rosenbaum ‘14 sat on a chair and read excerpts from Edgar Allan Poe and Ernest Hemingway. There was one point in the performance when Ong and Whiteford interjected his reading, forcing Rosenbaum to stop reading and sit on Ong’s lap. Rosenbaum’s reaction was fearful until the dancers leapt away, at which point he continued reading. The piece remained just as humorous as it originally was in the dance club show.
“Una Fantasia” involved different types of handicap equipment: crutches, a long elastic band, a rolling board, and forearm crutches. Each dancer had their own movement phrase, choreographed so the dancer could never leave and was dependent upon their objects. It was intriguing to see crutches used so gracefully, as an extension of the dancer’s body, but I think the concept was a little over my head.
Adele Myers choreographed a dance titled “This dance is what you see.” The piece was created as part of the Sherman Fairchild collaboration, attributing thanks to Conn professors like Blanche Boyd, Ariana Hamidi, and Joe Schroeder. Following Myers’s piece was “Spelling,” choreographed by David Dorfman. “Spelling” involved twenty-two dancers rocking out to the songs “Spell” and “Gloria,” both by Patti Smith.
After the intermission, the curtain reopened to the sounds of purring and bubbly cooing. The lights slowly revealed Laura Chrisinger ’13 as the source of the noises as she scrambled around a large wooden table, screaming bewildering sounds while making ridiculous gestures to the eight other dancers. The absurd rambling noises that came out of mouth made Chrisinger uproarious to watch. The other dancers were not completely sane either, as they grabbed their chests and seduced each other from across the stage. As the dance progressed, Chrisinger crawled as she tried to vigorously scrub the dancers clean. The table was eventually turned upside down, creating a flat surface for the dancers to eat spaghetti, served by Chrisinger on plastic plates. “Lust and Leftovers” by the guest artist Gabri Christa was comically ridiculous, and probably my favorite piece.
Following “Lust and Leftovers” was “adoringly, agnes and aaron” the second student-choreographed piece selected from this semester’s dance club show. The piece was choreographed by senior dance major Emma Judkins. Many people might recognize the song “Rodeo IV: Hoe Down” from the “Beef – It’s What’s for Dinner” TV ads. Judkins, once again, performed this piece with the amusing grandeur I remembered from the dance club show.
“Lullen in a New Plantation Economy,” choreographed by dance department faculty Shani Collins Achille, featured thirteen dancers gathered together to sing a call-and-response gospel song. Aaron Davis ’14 ran for almost the entire length of the piece, stopping only to sing the end of the song. After running for about ten minutes, I would not be able to start singing that beautifully without gasping for air.
The final piece of the show, “Celebrity Function: Excerpts of Live!” was choreographed by guest artist Kyle Abraham, a dancer in David Dorfman’s dance company. The piece, about fame and performing, featured dancers wearing black outfits with gold and blue sequined backs that “Glitter-ed” on stage. The music was a combination of Mariah Carey, Pan Sonic, Nirvana and Lauryn Hill. It had a lot of static but a contemporary vibe. The eight dancers popped and locked around the stage until one last dancer basked in the ending spotlight. It was a sparkly finale to the phenomenal dance department show. •
Additional reporting by Ayano Elson.
