With nine seniors showing the final pieces of their college career, it’s no surprise that this spring’s senior project dance concert covered a wide spectrum of dance forms.
Modern, jazz, step, tap, contact social and fad dances are all present in the evening’s work. No matter what kind of dance you like, there’s something everyone can enjoy in the two-hour show.
The first half of the show, which is at Grace Street Theater, goes from silly to sad to jazzy to earthy to nude. After intermission the pieces explore interdependence, popular dance fads, female friendships and rhythm.
In “A Time To.,” Heather Schrock explores grief and loss. The movements are powerful and dripping with emotion, with sweeping arms and torsos. Clad in black, cream and grey with slashes of red, the five women dance to gentle tribal music, overlaid with voices of people describing how they dealt with loss.
Nine dancers in primary colors prance across the stage in a ministry of silly walks meets a chicken walk style. Cherish Horton’s “Assemble Nine” is a quirky romp of children’s techno music, flexed feet and straight arms. Inspired by Legos, the dancers stack, roll, leap and build on each other.
Travis Sisk’s “Excerpts from Q(ueer) & A” is a work in three parts. In the first part, five dancers in hippie garb, portraying the Stonewall riots that marked the beginning of the gay rights movement, perform high-energy sharp, jutting movements.
Beginning with a protest march, part two examines the HIV/AIDS crisis. Two male and two female dancers pull off their bell-bottoms and polyester shirts and dance in only skin-colored underwear. One dancer stays clothed and squirts blood-colored liquid on the two men who are dancing on a cloth.
The final part doesn’t seem to fit in with the other two. In gold and chartreuse spandex, the dancers talk about how tonight is the saddest night out at a club because no one is falling in love. This part is lighthearted compared to the serious topics of the other two parts.
Sarah Ross’ “Never Forget, Never Forgotten” is a dramatic work exploring the interaction of five women in a small southwest Virginia town after World War II. Bending backs, twisting torsos and elegant extensions are matched with earth-toned period dresses and bluegrass music to complete this look at historic female relationships.
Then step back in time into a swanky jazz bar in Bravita Threatt’s red, hot and blue “Sides.” To the sounds of cool classical jazz and hot smooth jazz, Threatt fuses modern, social dance and tap in this fun rhythmic and dynamic work.
For the beginning of the second act, a wide strip of white flooring is placed down the center of the stage, while white cloth of the same width is hung down the back of the stage. This is for Niall Jones’ “Composition: Representation,” a piece that questions social interdependence within a fixed environment.
Jones explores the interaction of the elements of movement, sound, space and light. The five dancers use every edge of the white floor as a starting point in the piece. The work perfectly employs pauses, facings, controlled movements and repetition.
Eliza Diener-Brazelle’s “After All” is an intimate and introspectively meditative piece that examines the friendship of three women. The dancers display a heightened awareness and recognition of each other as they explore, lean on and make shapes together.
The evolution of music is the inspiration of Criscia Richardson’s “Oath.” The dancers are intense, almost angry. The repeated elements include a line of dancers hooking arms in a train, a twitchy head tilt and dancers leading each other. The eight-dancer cast also uses many elements of step dance, such as stomping and clapping, throughout the piece.
For a quick history of popular dances, look no further than Ashley Berryman’s “Jukebox.” Five women in polka-dot poodle skirts dance to a montage of classic ’50s rock and pop hits. The dancers do every dance you’ve probably ever heard of, including the chicken dance, Macarena, mashed potato, Charleston, twist and hand jive, to name a few. One move that draws much laughter from viewers is when the girls form a line and hop forward as they pretend to play their legs like guitars.