On Wednesday May 4, 2011, the dance 3510 Principles and Theories of Dance Composition class presented their choreography to an outside audience for the first and only time this semester. As a student choreographing a modern dance piece for the first time, this was somewhat nerve racking. Even though I was confident in my work and the dancers within the piece I still had a fear of failure in the back of my mind. Just before the show started, I was talking to Tyler about the feeling of vulnerability that was washing over my body, and he made a great point that calmed me down. He basically said that if you are happy with your work and you genuinely feel that it is a good piece then you shouldn’t worry about the audience’s review. This made me realize that all of the work and time invested had already paid off since my dancers had shown me their embodiment of my choreography in prior rehearsals, and the show was the resulting perk in which others would be able to view my work. If the audience were to find some kind of value by being aesthetically pleased from watching, then I would be even happier.
Choosing the costumes for this piece was pretty easy after thinking about the overall message that was trying to be spoken through the dance. At first I had thought about relying on make-up as the sole portrayal of the intent through costuming. This idea was set aside after careful consideration of the idea that the dance should be more powerful than the visual stimulation of costumes. I’d much rather the audience read the intent through the movement than the costume and make-up scene. Make-up still played a role in this portrayal, but in a more subtle way than covering their faces completely with literal clown-like carnival make-up. Instead, I chose to have all of the dancers except for the soloist to wear dark eyes and lips as a way to differentiate between the innocent soloist trapped among a more evil crowd of freaks that would not let this new comer to their lifestyle leave their world of despair. In contrast the soloist, Maggie, wore lighter colors with bright red lipstick to display her innocence and struggle. In the same contrasting respect, Maggie was the only one dressed in a red leotard and skirt as she was surrounded by dancers dressed in all black, tight clothing that covered their bodies from the wrist to the ankles. Seeing this on display during the performance was a reassurance of its validity as it read so well.
The music read well with the movement also with its creepy sounding nature. After searching for hours on end for the right music to go with my movement and theme, I had come across “Elegie” which is a piece by Hans Werner Henze. This atonal music had plenty of contrasting sounds throughout the piece to keep the music alive instead of drowning out the movement. It contained a build within itself that caused a feeling of suspense which was unfolded after every second. The mixture of piano and violin played a huge role in its effectiveness for me. These two instruments have always been very powerful to me and never cease to evoke emotion.
I couldn’t have asked for a better performance from my dancers. Each time a dancer appeared on stage I could see them embodying every choreographic detail and piece of imagery I had given to them throughout the process. After the dress rehearsal, Maggie had been worried that she hadn’t portrayed the performance quality I desired. I reassured her that the she was executing the look of exploration into a new lifestyle which developed into a sincere look of fear throughout the dance. To my surprise, these emotions read even stronger on performance night. All four of the other dancers performed to their top potential as well. Terrynan went deep into her character as the powerful, evil ring master while the other three followed in her trail just as intense and dark. There were several moments in the piece where I got chills from watching them perform. The first time that Brittany Olsen enters the stage space she is sliding on her back with her pelvis high into the air while pushing into the floor with her feet in locomotion. In the midst of it all Maggie looked unaware of this presence even as Brittany kept her eyes on Maggie as she slid across the entire stage. At another point in the dance, Maggie and Shannon are fighting for the upper-hand, and once Maggie gained control there was a moment when Shannon embodied the submissiveness perfectly as she allowed Maggie to whip her body up and down until leading her off of the stage. Toward the end of the piece Maggie and Brittany crawl away from Terrynan in fear only to be caught by Shannon and Lauren. Lauren’s gaze into Brittany’s eyes was so intense that it looked as if she had complete control of Brittany while she pushed her back only using that powerful focus. All of these moments among others throughout the dance were details that I had drilled into the dancers for several rehearsals. I was thoroughly impressed by each and every one of my dancers for performing the choreography so well.
Overall I had a good experience between my cast and the process in which the choreography developed. From day one I couldn’t get that idea of creating a dance about circus freaks, and I’m glad that I stayed with this idea. I think it’s amazing that this simple, broad idea developed into my own performed work. I was so afraid of creating something that was either too literal on stage or so complex that it became washed out and boring. I feel that with the guidance from Ellie I was able to find the balance between the two extremities, and even though I didn’t always follow every piece of advice I did listen to her words of wisdom and found my own ways of transforming the parts that weren’t working into parts that worked for the whole of the piece. I have thoroughly enjoyed choreographing and working with my dancers. Being able to see the end result last night made every eight o’ clock in the morning rehearsal worthwhile.
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