Dis/connect

The showcase opened with an outdoor dance performance that took the audience on a tour around Kolbe Hall. That dance that occurred prior to the event was reprised as a video played on a large screen in Paul Daum Theatre as the start of the formal recital. The videography gave a different perspective and focus on the dance that theatre-goers had witnessed outdoors, where they could choose to focus where they wanted. The piece seemed to convey the stressful aspects of the student experience such as extracurricular activities, life evets, and trauma. The outdoor portion of the piece was accompanied with live music performed by three drummers.

The photographer began to capture photos during the formal showcase, but the photos of the video dance are not compelling.

Choreography: Alec Lytton
Music: Bizet, Schubert, Fibich and Weninger
Costumes: Kendra Strickland
Soloist: Makenna Zelenak
Pas de Deux: Molly Bagatto and Larry White
Corps: Amoni Dawson-Westley, Grace Grieshop, Isabelle Howerton, Melania Inasaridze, Alexandre Ponomarenko, Brianna Shearer, Jessica Zawada.

You Are Who You’ve Been Looking For

This piece started off by telling a story with two girls on stage. The dancers seemed to act out a message against the societal norms imposed on people through capitalism, instant gratification, and obsession with perfection. More dancers joined in, but the two dancers. The two lead dancers began to take off their oversized black shirts to reveal plain white costumes underneath.  Were they hiding pureness or truth with a dark mask of perception because that is what the world expects? The seemed more themselves after the covers were thrown off.

Choreography: Maggie Grizer
Music: Adam Roa and Betty Who
Cast: Hannah Bloomquist, Meloney George, Jylian Haynes, Lisa Horton, Isabelle Howerton, Grace Thomas
Understudy: Emilyann Dustman

Choreography: ZeeCei
Music: Emerald City Sequence
Costumes: Kendra Strickland
Cast: Megan Delaney, Rhapsody Howell, Marissa Karthler, Alexandra Ponomarenko, Larry White, Victoria Zasidkovych

The Song of The Pretty Bird

This dance read as symbolic of freedom and breaking free from a feminist perspective. They were not talking about a pretty bird literally, but how some women maybe objectified and kept in a cage. The use of more traditionally feminine-appearing costume choice seemed to speak ironically to the idea of feminism.

Gallery • 13 Photos

Alyssa Alexsonshk

The Song of the Pretty Bird

Music: Shay Akexi Stewart and Gabriel Faure’, Sheku Kanneth-mason, and Isata Kanneh-Masson
Cast: Kaliegh Allen, Rachel Carpenter, Hannah Bloomquist, Megan Delaney, Lisa Horton, Maggie Grizer, Jennisa Johnson, Brianna Shearer, Jessica Zawada

Pieces

This piece has an emotional story, but felt like it went by very fast. There was a lot of interaction between dancers, and it felt like it was a communicating journey of struggle, perseverance, and the impact of external factors can have on emotions.

Gallery • 7 Photos

Alyssa Alexsonshk

Dance: Pieces

Choreography: Marisa Huguley
Music: Olafur Arnalds & Mils Fraham
Cast: Rachel Brownlee, Megan Delaney, Rhapsody Howell, Marisa Huguley, Taniqua Jones, Victoria Zasidkovych

if i____,would you____?

This piece was powerful in the sense of the energy you could feel when it came to the interactions between the dancers. It was a showcase of teamwork in telling a story through dance as at points dancers all came together to lift, pull and physically connect with each other through the use of emotions. This dance perhaps conveyed the title of the dance showcase the greatest by featuring human connection.

Choreography: Christine Howe
Music: Sebastian Piano
Cast: Rachel Carpenter, Renee Clippinger, Maggie Grizer, Jylian Haynes, Lisa Horton, Taniqua Jones, Larry White, Makenna Zelenak