The Undergraduate/Graduate concert continues to be a beacon for student creativity, as audiences get to view the works of all students starting Dec. 12.
The concert had recently returned in 2022 after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic. With the resurgence of this student collaboration, this weekend audiences will get to see many different styled dances, all choreographed by students at the university.
Olivia Farmerie, a first-year graduate student at the university, choreographed her group piece about how improvisation can release trauma from the body. The choreography moves trauma through the body with dance.
Her piece deals with a lot of personal emotions from not just Farmerie, but the dancers as well. The dancers had to keep a journal for the piece and journal about their own experiences regarding trauma and then use these emotions to improvise and build the choreography.
“It was a lot more experimental, I’d say, than just going into the studio and just making choreography and setting it on the dancers. It was more collaborative. A lot of external research was brought into the studio and then in turn created the choreography. Rather than the choreography being the driving factor in the process,” Farmerie said.
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Lindsey Wildman, a fourth-year undergrad student, shared that her piece also deals with a lot of improvisation within the street side of freestyling. The piece will explore the relationship between live musicians and dancers and show how vulnerable it can be to dance.
“I was experiencing all these [freestyling] intensives this summer and was like, ‘Wow, this is vulnerable.’ This is showcasing how I, Lindsey, relate to the music, and how I feel in my body” Wildman said.
“From the Outside In,” the group piece choreographed by Allyson Meinder, a third-year student, delves into dark themes such as the loneliness and anxiety that goes with college. The dance will tackle abandonment and grief.
Reaching for something and going into trapped anger, and frustration, and by the end of her piece, Meinder and her dancers take these emotions and are being controlled by them, into a constant loop of these emotions. The piece ends with the audience wanting more.
Cutting her piece off in the middle of the story acts as part one of her two-part story. The second is shown for her capstone project.
What Meinder says she wants to see from the audience most is an open mind to all the pieces on stage, but especially some of the darker ones you will see from the students.
“Keep an open mind. I feel like sometimes, even as a dancer, I come in and if I see something that is starting to look a little sad, I will close off. I would say come in with an open mind. It’s gonna be intense,” Meinder said.
“Oh, I would love to hear some hoots and hollering,” Wildman added. “That is what live performance is, is live engagement. We don’t need to pretend that you aren’t there watching us. You are there.”