After a long break, the dance department’s Student Choreography Showcase (SCS) made a much-anticipated comeback. This year, I decided to take part in choreographing and performing a solo for the showcase. The months leading up to the showcase were filled with creativity and excitement as I, along with other dancers, began creating our works. For dancer majors, SCS is a unique opportunity to choreograph and perform work, and that usually doesn’t happen until their senior year. So, SCS became the perfect platform for dancers to finally showcase their creativity and performance abilities! On March 30, majors, minors, and non-affiliated students all came together for a night of love, heartbreak, and fun!
The performance showcased interdisciplinary works like Ladina Schaller’s solo, which involved a projection with a video that she edited herself. Her work was an ode to her home in Switzerland, featuring beautiful landscapes and her navigating interesting sculptures. Nicola Troschinetz, a musical theatre major, choreographed a duet with Evan Tylka, also a musical theatre major, that brought extremely engaging dynamics and interesting partnering techniques. It was extremely exciting to have musical theater majors and Audrey Andrews a theatre major perform in this show. Expanding the love of dance beyond the dance department welcomes new people to the program and opportunities to perform in this beautiful art form. The talent and dedication of these performers was truly inspiring, showcasing their creativity and passion for dance.
The last three pieces were solos performed by Claire Schick, Amelie Vidrio, and me! I bring these up because–as most audience members can also admit–the last three pieces were especially sad and emotionally heartbreaking. Claire’s solo was to the song “Audrey” by Bread, a song that she heard often throughout her childhood. It mixed youthful elements like cartwheels with complex floorwork and music-based quick movements. Amelie Vidrio’s solo was to “Sayonara No Kane” by Hako Yamasaki, a 70s heart-wrenching Japanese ballad. Amelie used a chair throughout the piece in unconventional ways: as a dancing partner, a tool to balance on, and eventually spun in a circle with it and threw it to the audience (creatively avoiding hitting anyone,of course!). My piece also utilized a prop, a house lamp, and a pile of clothes. Robert, the lighting designer, did a great job at creating the perfect atmosphere that worked with the onstage lamp perfectly. Toward the end of the piece, I took off the shade of the lamp, and that created a huge shadow of my body onto the backdrop. It was better than I could have imagined.
This event will hopefully continue each semester from now on, giving more students the opportunity to choreograph a dance piece and perform on our amazing stage. I highly recommend coming to the next show to see a diverse range of dancers and styles performed with creative lighting that is unlike any other show you will see at this university.
Love the variety of artistic voices included here. Feels like there was a real range.