The annual Fall Forward Dance Concert, presented by the Oberlin Theater and Dance Program, took place Dec. 4 to 6.The night included works by faculty and student choreographers.

The first piece, choreographed by associate professor of dance Elesa Rosasco was titled The Net of Gemsand performed by members of the Oberlin Dance Company. Even before the music began, the audience’s attention was captured by a dancer’s silhouette in a window frame. As the lights illuminated the stage, a dream-like quality filled the space, projecting from the massive clear glass blocks that littered the stage and the transparent costumes the dancers wore.

However, the following dance was not as dream-like as the program led one to believe.The themes of compassion and suffering, as noted by Rosasco in the program, were portrayed very well by the dancers’ clean, simple movements, but these movements were at times static and didn’t develop much through the piece.

The movement of the blocks around stage and even on top of dancers was executed with the utmost care and physical prowess. By the end of the piece, the dancers had formed a sculpture of blocks and people that culminated in dancers skating across stage on the glass blocks, arms outstretched and reaching towards the light.

The next piece revealed some creative new ways to use a bed sheet. Kala Hildebrand’s piece, To reveal, employed three dancers and used the sheet in imaginative ways that were unforseeable at a few spots.All three of the dancers were well suited to the piece and to each other, a balance not easily found.The dancers were mostly able to remain composed while moving the sheets around so much.When the sheets were tangled the dancers lost composure, but only in their projection to the audience, not in their faces or their bodies. Such is to be expected when working with props. The use of the strong diagonal and other geometric arrangements of the dancers gave the piece a classic visual air.

The second half of the program contained a wide range in dance forms.After intermission, the mood of the performance space dramatically changed when senior Pia Murray performed a light piece called “Um Dia Simples.”She portrayed the start of a day in a young woman’s life: doing chores, cooking and getting ready to leave the house.Her beautiful movements, grounded in style of African dance, were well integrated into her storyline. Her simple piece added some vibrancy to the mood of the night, paving the way for the remaining pieces.

The second piece after the intermission was “Rapper Sword,” performed by foreman Peter Kruskal and his troupe of morris menand women. Evan Childress added the music to this piece, which included swords that had handles on both ends. The all-black costumes with red suspenders made a great picture as dancers accurately performed complicated weaving patterns, the swords moving all the while in flashes of silver. The discrepancy between the dancers’ faces, calm and composed, and the dancers’ feet, quick, exciting and precise, added to the dance’s appeal.

“This Is The Way I Always Dreamed It Would Be,” choreographed and performed by Nic Trovato, was the perfect ending to a lovely night of dance. As a young girl on her first date, Trovato started in silence, studying herself in a bathroom mirror. It turned into a delightful comic twist on the expectations of women in the 1960s and first dates. She executed the piece with great timing, ending with the climatic kiss of her first date, firmly planted on a soda bottle. The one thing lacking was more actual dancing from Trovato, who is one of Oberlin’s finest movers.

This year’s Fall Forward was an imaginative and entertaining event.