Three short months have passed since senior Juliana May began work on the dance pieces that have come to make up her senior dance performance, Choreolab. These choreographed pieces have been set to dances both in Oberlin and Cleveland. The show will be coming to Hall this weekend.

Based on the idea of creating space for collaboration and dance making, Choreolab takes modern dance to new levels. Many of the pieces included in the show have been performed at Oberlin before, but with each performance, May breathes new life into her art. Seeing a large spectrum of work together on one stage reveals the expanse of May’s work in a clear light. May finds working with both old and new media to be a difficult yet interesting process. While seeing how her conceptions of space, content and form pertaining to choreography have changed over the past few years, she sees Choreolab as a medium for true self expression.
“When Juliana speaks, what comes out is movement, and she has a lot to say…and it’s worth seeing,” dance professor Nusha Martynuk said.
The show starts informally with a solo performed by May herself, entitled “Point and Shoot.” Essentially, this solo invites the audience into her creative space and process. Performed without music, May commands the stage with a powerful silence, overwhelming the audience with an unexpectedly raw style of dance. Partly improvised, “Point and Shoot” sets the stage for themes that appear throughout Choreolab.

The Cleveland Repertory Project then performs an older work, “Pedestrian Crossing” (1998). Accompanied by the music of Philip Glass, the Rep Project uses simple gestures to exemplify how the body is not only aware of, but also informs the space. “Pedestrian Crossing” is both soothing and unsettling, and the dancers do justice to May’s choreography.
“This piece has been with me for about six years,” May explains. “Since then it has undergone many reconstructions.”

The next two in the program are wonderfully contrasted. The first, “In Between Spaces” (2000-01), has been shown at Oberlin a number of times, but during each performance (including Choreolab), in a different form. Set to the music of Yvan Greenberg ( OC ’01), “In Between Spaces” is alternately known as the “The Red Piece” with good reason. The combination of the red costumes and the tight, angular dancing create an overpowering graphic sensation for the audience. The audience can’t help but distance themselves from what was bordering on sensory-overload. “In Between Spaces” brings May’s points about perceptions of structure and body and what has come to be known as the space between home.
The second, entitled “Hand-Me-Down,” catches the audience off guard, not only because of the white costumes, but also with the large number of people occupying the stage. Much calmer than “In Between Spaces,” “Hand-Me-Down” quietly builds tension by exposing the relationship between spectator and performer –– group and outsider. The sheer number of people on stage brings to mind the chaos of expressionist film, yet the dancers push and pull the piece with beautiful cohesion.
Choreolab ends with a trio, now known as “The Faker.” This recently- created work starts with three musicians suspended in space, playing the music composed by senior TIMARA student Jim Altieri on laptops. The dancers interact with each other, the musicians and the audience, breaking down what performers know as the fourth wall. The world represented in “The Faker” is not a pretty world, but, as May states, “It feels incredibly honest.”
When asked about Choreolab, senior Julia McBee, a dancer in both “In Between Spaces” and “Hand-Me-Down,” said, “The trio [“The Faker”] puts it over the edge for me. It’s so smart, and funny and sad. It’s ingenious!”
The entire production of Choreolab is honest and revealing. Emotions run high throughout the performance. The choreography is intricate and clearly difficult, combining strength, skill and even sex-appeal into a solid performance. Senior Emily Strout, also a dancer in both “In Between Spaces” and “Hand-Me-Down,” said, “Choreolab is a show that challenges us both physically and emotionally.” She insists that Choreolab is really about people coming together to create something beautiful. May agrees that Choreolab wouldn’t have been possible without the dancers.
Any preconceptions about modern dance will falter when applied to Choreolab. This is not your run-of-the-mill, self-indulgent senior dance concert. Choreolab is a collaborative effort which expands the meaning of dance beyond the stage and beyond the individual. If nothing else, Choreolab will revive your faith in modern dance as a thriving and expressive art form.