Students of the Eastern Michigan University Advanced Dance Composition course preformed their last recital of the school year on Friday in the Warner Gymnasium.
For their final performance, students of the course preformed a series of interpretive dance numbers, showcasing their lessons in class on working in groups. Eleven student choreographers each created a piece based on a personal message they wished to convey, connecting to a central theme of time.
“This final project for composition class was developing movement and motifs,” dance professor Holly Hobbs said. “The students held their own auditions for the dancers and conducted their own rehearsals. Every element of this concert was produced by the students.”
Interpretive dance is a form of artistic expression that conveys particular feelings and emotions, human conditions, situations or fantasies into a dramatic expression of movement. It is an abstract form of expression often linked to other forms of art and can be found on Broadway and other forms of mainstream media.
“Much like music or modern art, the audience may not get the composer’s idea,” Hobbs said. “But will get a mood and even form their own idea behind the performance.”
Each of the student choreographers had their own deep emotional message to convey in Friday night’s performance, and many of the dancers involved felt connected to the pieces as well.
“The students choreographed each performance so they were very personal to them,” dancer Daniel Clevenger said. “The second piece I had fun playing an evil character, which represented the devil.”
“Did You Forget?” choreographed by Jennifer Flanagan, conveyed a very clear message about losing our creative selves in the day to day hustle of life.
“It reminds me to take some time for myself,” Patrick McCrae, a dancer who also recently preformed in the opera “Dido and Aeneas” at EMU, said.
Student choreographer Chloe Gray spoke of her piece “Ivy Desolation” and about the personal portrait she painted for the audience. The performance began with a dancer separated from the group, but who came together with the others in the end.
“This piece was about going through the grieving process, isolation and finally acceptance,” Gray said.
She has recently experienced the grieving process herself and in the journey connected with others to help.
“I’m proud of the way it turned out. It was a personal and artistic process,” Gray said.
For Emily Swanson, Friday’s performance was her final one before graduation. Swanson danced in the piece “Oscillate,” choreographed by Maneesha Finkle, along with Liz Hynes, Alyssa Langmeyer and Caitlin Orlando.
“The piece was inspired by clocks and how time moves,” Swanson said. “The movements were based on how time moves and controls our lives.”
Among the other performed pieces was “A Collection of Truth” by Juliann Brewer, which was accompanied by the J.K. Rowling quote, “We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.”
The piece “Now I See” by Mariah Robinette was inspired by Proverbs 12:18, “Some people bring cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing.”
The piece “Verdadera” by Kayleigh Crummey was also accompanied by a quote in the concert’s program that said, “Honest relationships founded in real love, not artificially bound self-satisfactions, make us who we are. We are all looking for a hand to hold, one that will grace us purely to help sort ourselves out and provide means to move forward. For there is something healing about feeling understood.”
The style of interpretative dance often involves grand, large and elegant movements, such as wide
swooshes of the arms and legs, spins and sudden drops to the floor. Lavish costumes and dramatic facial expressions also help to further project the creator’s message.
“Aftermath” by Alexa Von Der Hoff and “Hands of Fate,” choreographed by Madelyn Prebola, used these techniques to convey individual and powerful messages. The performance “A Mosaic Heart” by Addie Zemcik used dramatic music to give the picture of a heartbeat in order to further the piece’s message.
The dance studio was packed with an audience of family and friends. Many guests were sitting on
the floor in front of bleachers.
“Interpretive dance is an incredibly creative way to express yourself,” freshman Tyler Denig, one of the audience members, said. “I was skeptic at first, but I’m definitely a believer.”
