By Claire Dietz | [email protected]
Three dancers relax and chat in Thai — almost as though someone simply forgot to close the curtain after their performance — underneath a screen declaring, “It’s OK to not know everything.”
Audiences at Dance Gala may not know everything, may not be entirely sure what’s happening at all times, but they can appreciate the beauty behind the pieces.
Dance Gala will continue at 8 p.m. today after opening on Tuesday. There are more performances through Dec. 13 in North Hall’s Space/Place.
Space/Place is an intimate theater, holding fewer than 200 people when full. The stage takes up a majority of the room, the performers almost against the boundary line separating stage and audience. In some pieces, the line blurs and disappears as dancers interact with audience members closest to the stage.
Production preparation for Gala has been in place since the first day of this semester for both faculty and students. Some dancers were cast in May.
Dance Gala is the production that all dancers want to participate in, Associate Professor Charlotte Adams said. As the largest production, it is the most professionally produced opportunity in the department.
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“We use a wide range of dancers, and we get that time to develop and work with them,” Adams said. “The schedule is set so we can do in-depth creative research on our choreography and have a sufficient amount of time to produce the piece so everything can be as high quality as possible.”
Adams’ research began with re-reading the T.S. Eliot poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” on which she based her dance composition, “I Shall Wear My Trousers Rolled.”
“The language is so beautiful, and there have always been these clear images, and then when I re-read it, it conjured up more and more information,” she said. “I worked with these two things — the language and the images that came to me. The piece then, for me, is like a young man thinking forward and a younger man thinking back. The excitement of youth and the questions of life a younger man has.”
After months of work, the excitement among the young men and women creating these pieces hasn’t faded. With finals approaching, though, the end of rehearsals and performances may come as a relief.
“I took [this experience] as a positive challenge and because of this I’ve never felt frustratedor too stressed about it,” said Angella Betina Carlos, dancing in Kristin Marr’s piece “Charismata.” “The rehearsal schedules have also been quite challenging, because we only get to rehearse our Gala pieces twice a week. We really had to maximize our time during each rehearsal.”
“Charismata” dives into themes of community, joy, and sorrow, among others.
“The ballet explores how community can transcend time and space — in times of joy and in times of great sorrow — and is supported by a musical score that spans six centuries,” Marrs said. “The cast itself is a testimony to what community can look like. The lead role is shared by two dancers: Elizabeth Westra, a senior hailing from Milwaukee, and Angella Bettina Carlos, a graduate student from the Philippines.”
When “Charismata” shows a sense of community, it does so in unexpected ways. In their loose tunics, most of the dancers’ moves come easily. But some of the aerial movements are more difficult. The cast relies heavily on trust when hoisting a dancer into the air, parading her across the stage. These moments passing among the performers are thrilling to watch; audience members, for a moment, holding their breath at the exhibit of faith.
“The piece itself has a huge emphasis on community, and [Marrs] tells us when we dance to be aware of each other and dance with each other,” said sophomore dancer Anya Kress. “It’s really helped our cast build a community in itself by dancing like that.”
Despite all obstacles dancers may face, graduate student Amy Simonson, a dancer in “Sapien Non Sapien,” found them necessary.
“It is a good challenge for performers because we do the show so many times in a row,” she said. “Everyone is busy with the last week of classes, but we still show up fully committed to performing every night. It gives us a chance to feel comfortable onstage with the choreography and experience it in different ways.”
Like Simonson, senior Kristen Vasilakos believes the process was well worth the energy expended.
“As a whole, you learn so much from the rehearsal and choreographic experience,” Vasilakos said. “My performance and choreographic skills improve every time I have an experience like this. In terms of performing, at this point in time, the dance is choreographed, changes are made, and it’s time to just enjoy the piece and share it with the audience.”
UI dance Associate Professor Jennifer Kayle’s piece “Sapien Non Sapien” deals with the nature of what humans think they know versus what people actually know.
“The meaning of that title is having to do with the scientific nameof human beings, which is Homo sapien sapien,” Kayle said. “It seems to indicate humans are double knowing: sapien, sapien. We know that we know that we are unique.
“I think that life is a pretty confusing place, and in a way, what the choreography does is expose those frustrations we sometimes have that we don’t know,” she said. “When we walk around and we don’t know why we’re here or what we’re doing.”
Kayle’s piece has a large ensemble, the prologue a giant congregation of atleast 20 dancers, all dressed uniformly in striped shirts and gray joggers. The uniformity is also found in their movements as they descend upon the small theater through the wings. Moving as one, they perform their piece, then reconvene after intermission to give the audience a true experience of postmodern dance.
Senior Dani Snook said with this group of more than 20, there were hurdles bringing the whole cast together until recently. Snook also said there is a very open dialogue in the creation of the choreography on both the parts of the dancers and the choreographer.
“It’s been difficult with the large cast, but it is a very balanced choreography process,” Snook said. “[Kayle will] tell us, ‘Go and create something, and bring it back,’ and then she’ll choose what she likes and then add in her own.”
At the tail end of her freshman year, Snook tore her ACL and meniscus, leaving her unable to perform. After undergoing surgery and physical therapy, she made her UI dance début in last semester’s Undergraduate Concert. This is her first time being involved with Dance Gala.
“I look forward to performing again,” Snook said. “There’s nothing like it. People are addicted to running and love the thrill of it, but there is nothing better than a dark audience and stage lights.”
DANCE
What: Dance Gala
When: 8 p.m. today-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday & Dec. 13
Where: North Hall Space/Place
Admission: $5-$20