Student Dance Show Masters More than Movement
by Emily Strout

This year’s annual Spring Back student dance concert was a technically diverse and ambitious show that tried to master more than just movement. Held in Warner last weekend, the performance consisted of five pieces choreographed by students and two pieces choreographed by faculty.

The show opened with junior Laura Daugherty’s solo, “Unbound.” It was an exploration of ballet, specifically emphasizing the pointe shoe — that painful yet beautiful shoe that allows ballerinas to stand on their toes. Daugherty made different sounds with her pointe shoes on the floor and walls, rebelling against the ballet practice of being as silent as possible. She also challenged herself by trying positions that are rare in traditional ballet, and used her upper body much more than is usual. It was wonderful to see old techniques explored in such new ways.

“Endymion” was a collaboration between senior choreographer Loren Groenendaal and senior composer James Blachly. The piece was inspired by a Greek myth about the “eternal, ever-yearning love between the moon and the water.” The size of the piece was in itself impressive — consisting of seven dancers as well as more than twenty singers.
The dramatic and intricate music combined with the soft blue lighting to transform Warner Main into a different world. But the dancing seemed too simple compared with the music.
“This was in an effort to signify the sacred mood that we see within the relationship of the ocean and the moon,” Groenendaal said.

When asked about the collaboration, Blatchly said, “I am honored to have been afforded this opportunity to work with this dance department that I have admired from afar.”

“Looking for Loie” was choreographed and performed by Professor Ann Cooper Albright. Cooper Albright wrote in the program that her dance “is the beginning of a book project on turn-of-the-century dancer Loie Fuller.” Cooper Albright performed a solo to a recording in which she compared Fuller to herself. An audience member observed after the show that “[Cooper Albright] mentioned how she was moving ‘from language into dance,’ but she’s so obviously stuck in language.”

“Falling off of Apogee,” choreographed by senior Jenny Sawyer, was inspired by contact improvisation — a dance form often difficult to perform because its philosophy is centered on participation. Sawyer had clearly struggled with this dilemma and produced a piece that was choreographed instead of improvised. The performance was somewhat limited by using only contact improv vocabulary, but the combination of the music and the energy of the dancers made it generally delightful to watch. Sophomore dancer Julia Smith said: “This piece is not really about very specifically placed movement, it’s about a group energy…a feeling of coming together.”
“Beyond the Periphery,” a duet choreographed by junior Asheley Smith, was one of the few pieces in the program about dance and nothing more. The style was jazz-tinged and consisted of several sequences of movement performed in synch by the two dancers. Dancers Daugherty and junior Corena Gamble created an interesting tension by never dancing together and barely acknowledging each other’s presence.
“Lucid,” a gorgeous video created by senior Mary Moran in which Moran and senior Irene Akio enact a dance/story, left many audiences members wanting more. Its unusual shooting angles and changing color saturations gave it a dreamlike quality. “Lucid is about an interaction and connection between two women who have never met,” Akio said.

“Body of Knowledge,” the final piece in the program, was choreographed by Professor Nusha Martynuk. It dealt with the conflict between conceptualizing dance and just dancing. Professor Roger Copeland satirized a dance critic, talking about the “pre-colonization, post-colonization, de-colonization, and re-colonization” of the body in dance, while the six ODC dancers cut him off with dance. “Body of Knowledge” ended with the striking image of all six dancers about to speak but choosing not to, allowing the dance to speak for itself. It was an appropriate finish to a concert that focused more on theories and concepts than actual movement.