PREVIEW: Things Both Hushed and Grand

Performance Ark presents

Things Both Hushed and Grand


Performance Ark is a U of M “student-led hub for developing artists looking to collaborate.” As part of a two day event, the group is producing its first ever evening length performance, titled Things Both Hushed and Grand. According to the artists, “this performance applies ‘dance party colloquialisms and tailored contemporary technique to a lo-fi bedroom pop sound to investigate the courage it takes to be “an absolute nobody.”

The piece is choreographed by U of M Department of Dance students Tehillah Frederick, Julia Smith-Eppsteiner and Katy Telfer. Dancers include Tehillah Frederick, Edith Freyer, Allie Harris, Natalie Niergarth, Maddy Rager, Molly Ross, Julia Smith-Eppsteiner, Katy Telfer & Cara Zonca, also students in the department. The show is paired with music by funky, up-and-coming local band Fthrsn (click here and here to get a sonic taste test).

I asked Julia Smith-Eppsteiner a few questions about her collaborative work and she gave me a hearty glimpse into her process:

Is this related to school at all? Yes and no. We have established ourselves as a student organization at the University, all the dancers we’re using are in the dance department of SMT&D, as is the musician, and we are partially funded by Arts at Michigan mini-grant. But in a lot of ways it is independent from the school … Firstly, we met Macklin Underdown (fthrsn) at a music concert/dance party at Arbor Vitae. Secondly, we also are funded by independent donors via Kickstarter. And most importantly, we’re doing this production on our own time. This isn’t our BFA Senior Thesis, we’re not getting any credit for it and aside from the assistance and encouragement from faculty members we approached, this project is independent of our departments.

How did you get the idea to make this performance happen?
The three of us (Tehillah, Katy and I) have been interested in each other as collaborators/choreographers/movers for a long time and sort of joked about making a show together at the end of our freshman year (we’re all juniors currently). Tehillah brought it up to us again at the end of this past summer and until we saw Mackie perform at a party in October we didn’t get concretely going on anything. Once he was on board and making songs, we were pushed to make it actually happen and create deadlines for ourselves to generate movement phrases and keep us moving forward (deadlines such as Collage Concert and a Telluride Lecture Series we did titled Defining Movement). We’ve been seriously working on Things Both Hushed & Grand since November, us four responsible for everything on both the creative and business sides of the production.

Who did the posters? Jessica Ford, a BFA student in the Art and Design School, with a focus in painting. She’s been a dream.

All performances are free of charge and open to the public. For more information on the show, check out the Performance Ark Facebook page. One of the exciting and novel things about this particular performance is that it will shift venues with each of the three iterations:

Friday, March 23rd

Studio 1 black box theatre in Walgreen Drama Center on North Campus

Doors are at 4:30pm, performance at 5 pm.


Friday, March 23rd

Ann Arbor Art Center, 117 W. Liberty St

Exhibition Gallery

Doors at 8pm, performance at 8:30


Saturday, March 24th

Campus Chapel, 1236 Washtenaw Ct.

Doors at 1:30pm, performance at 2pm




REVIEW: Pina

The Oscars happened last Sunday and The Artist was a sweep. But this time next year, look out for the film Pina. See it in theaters now, remember it when awards season rolls around in a year. This spectacle is bound to be a hit.

Based on the life and work of German choreographer Pina Bausch, this 3-D film mixes an explosive combination of mediums: film, dance, choreography, set design, music, sound, lighting, language, graphics, special effects, cinematography. A sensational splendor.

Pina’s work in modern dance escalated in the 1970’s and continues to be influential today. Her role as a director is most prominent in Tanztheater, which translates to “dance theater.” She spearheaded a company in Germany by the same name, though throughout her career she worked with the gamut of cross-continental dance fame. In Tanztheater, Pina created celebrated pieces such as Rite of Spring (1975), and Café Müller (1978). Both are exemplary of her outrageous style: in the former, dancers move about on stage completely covered in soil and in the latter, they aggressively crash into chairs and tables on a café set. Both are reenacted beautifully in the film.

Image from Café Müller

Image from Rite of Spring

So thats the overview of who Pina is: a creative, expressive, and innovative movement artist. And now about this crazy movie that she inspired: Oscar-nominated film maker Wim Wenders has been a fan of Pina since the 80’s and decided to document her work in action. His crew followed hers long before the project took off, building artistic relationships between those in front and behind the camera. Unfortunately, days  before the shooting began, Pina died unexpectedly of a sudden cancer. The fim, therefore, began a tribute to her life more than just a portrayal or her work ethic.

The sets incorporated a wild combination of elements. Here, I mean earth elements: dirt, mountains, water, plant life. Some performances were filmed on a traditional stage, while others sought peculiar venues like rooftops, subway trains, swimming pool decks, or glass paneled houses in the woods.

The dance numbers were performed by professionals from Pina’s company. Their segments were separated by close- ups combined with voice overs in the variety of languages spoken by the worldly crew: Spanish, French, German, Portugese, Japanese, Chinese, English, and more. They talked of Pina as a guiding artist and all that her ingenuity and freedom of expression taught them about themselves, their bodies, and their work.

Counter to the common conception of dancers as always youthful, these workers ranged vastly in their ages. I found this point to be very curious. It spoke to the life long development of artists and how they become enriched as they ripen in their craft. Their ages may be have been evident on their skin, but the astounding strength and nimbleness of the dancer’s bodies far from gave them away. In fact, there was one piece in which dancers of various eras of life were dressed in identical outfits, confusing the audience about who was who. It was a number that could only have been performed for screen dance. I don’t see how this switching of characters could be performed live without the trickery of editing.

I asked my cousin, who works as a professional ballet dancer for the Boston City Ballet, his opinion on the work. “I thought it was beautiful,” he said. “She’s so unique in her choreography.”

And I agree! Watching Pina was one of the most visually pleasing experiences I have had in a long time.It was creative, stunning, marvelous, and inspirational beyond belief. I would feel badly for anyone who misses the opportunity to experience it.

Hurry up and see it! I’m serious, this was a very powerful artistic undertaking. The documentary has already swept up  The European Film Awards and German Film Awards, as well as receiving nominations or Official Selections from The Academy Awards, New York, Telluride, and Toronto Film Festivals. Pina is only playing at the Michigan Theater through this Sunday, March 4th. Check the Michigan Theater website for show times. Also, here’s and interview with director Wim Wenders from the New York Times. For more background on the production, check out the movie’s website .

REVIEW: Spring Awakening

There are those musicals that are frivolous; the ones that of course you still enjoy, but you leave saying, “Oh, that was cute!” Some leave you cross-eyed, uttering, “What did I just watch?” Then, there is Spring Awakening where you leave physically hurting, the tension of the show washing over you in waves, long after the final chords have faded away. A musical that can make you feel the magic of intimacy, the pain of betrayal, and the beauty of the human existence can be deemed unbelievable, I suppose, but even that is sort of vague and nonspecific. It was awesome, let’s call it that.

I’ve seen the show before and heard the music thousands of times; however, the School of Musical Theatre here produces and attracts such remarkable talent that I could honestly say that I’d never heard the show like those students performed it last night. Conor Ryan, as previously seen in Caberet last semester, was an extremely impressive male lead playing the character of Melchior, a “radical” who goes against the grain of the 1890s German society of restrictions, regulations, and rules against young adolescents. His acting and vocal talent is postively flawless. Erika Peterson played the female lead, Wendla, with remarkable flourish and a moving vocal performance. I would honestly say I’d rather see her play the role again than ever watch Lea Michele as Wendla, as made famous from the show Glee but previously debuted the role of Wendla on Broadway. Granted, I have only heard Michele sing the songs; however, I truly loved Peterson’s voice for the part and thought she was spectacular. Her body language when she performed was so timid yet powerful as she spent most of the show, shoulders hunched and hands laced over her stomach. It’s a hard thing to describe and I’m sort of struggling here, but just trust me when I say it worked; it just worked.

My favorite performer of the show, if I had to choose, would be Ryan Vasquez in the role of Moritz, another male lead playing side-by-side as best friend of Melchior (Conor Ryan). I loved him in the role so much and afterwards, I could not get his interpretation of the song “Don’t do Sadness” out of my head. If you haven’t seen the show, this is not going to make much sense, but he added a bunch of rifts to the song that gave it a newer and more desperate quality. I got chills. The torment of his character was evident in every movement of his body and the songs he sang. I cried at the beginning and the end for poor Moritz.

After the show ended, I wanted desperately to close my eyes, rewind time, and just watch the show over and over. It’d only been about four years since I’d first seen the show, but in no way was I numb to the passion of this show. I hope that everyone has the opportunity to see Spring Awakening at some point because it is just so phenomenal of a musical that everyone is bound to find something they adore within its contents.

REVIEW: Mock Rock 2012

Oh my goodness. I had such a blast at Mock Rock last night. For those that don’t know, Mock Rock is an annual fundraiser to raise money for several awesome organizations, like student athletes volunteering for social change, Mott’s Children’s Hospital, and a few others I don’t quite remember. The actual event is a variety show, put on by the student athletes, which includes dance numbers, skits, and even a little bit of singing. It was, in a word, amazing.

I’m really bummed because I was so engrossed in what was happening on stage, I completely forgot to take notes on my favorite acts! I do of course remember the men’s swim team – in all their Speedo and fabulous abbed-glory, stripping for all the drooling ladies in the audience. I remember the marching band did an adorable rendition of several Justin Bieber songs while the storyline of the music video was supposed to be how this guy, the actual drum major, couldn’t fit in anywhere at UM, so he decides to try marching band. It was sooo precious (and our drum major is pretty much the cutest thing ever, so that definitely contributed to their overall performance).

Remembering a few others, I know the football/volleyball duo skit was very sweet, the football players being nerds and the volleyball players the pretty, popular crowd all the poor nerds wanted to get with. The cheerleading team…yikes. I don’t know if it was because the lighting was so good on the stage of Hill auditorium and/or because I am used to seeing them from a distance at football games, but it was a little more than brutal to watch. As the girls were hoisted on the shoulders of their stud-ly gentlemen, they shook and swayed until at the last final pose, the music stopped, but their momentum didn’t as the two end-girls actually toppled over. I think I shrieked a little, but was relieved to see the mat beneath them caught their falls – or, at least softened it a smidge. And women’s golf was painful too, unfortunately. They did a sort of- cutesy version of Legally Blonde’s “Bend and Snap” scene; however, the nasty recording and bad acting left a lot to be desired. Thank goodness they’re so good at golf because acting is quite honestly not a good option for any of them.

All in all, a fabulous job and I was so proud to be a wolverine last night, seeing all the dedication the athletes put in to this fundraiser and to their jobs as representatives of the university. It was an amazingly fun night, and I’m so glad I went. I’ll be sure to be there again next year!

REVIEW: Bang, Click, and Falala

Last night, I went to an outstanding benefit show for Appreciate + Reciprocate, a group of scholarship students who work to raise money to provide more scholarships to those in disadvantaged positions. The performance involved four groups and lasted a very appropriately-designated hour. GROOVE, RhythM Tap ensemble, 58 Greene, and the Harmonettes joined forces to put on a truly awesome display of passion, music, and energy that was well worth my $7.

First of all, let me just say I am the biggest fan of GROOVE there is. Okay, no, I’m sure there are greater fanatics than I, but seriously, GROOVE is the best thing ever. And I’ve seen STOMP, a similar world-renown group that makes instruments out of garbage cans and broom sticks, but GROOVE brings that youthful energy I think STOMP greatly lacks. They left me on the edge of my seat, wanting more after their three or four songs were over. I’m so there for their spring concert.

I’d never seen and/or heard of the group RhythM Tap ensemble, so seeing them for the first time was really awesome. They’re synchronization and athletic abilities were a marvel. I’m totally going to keep an eye out for their future performances.

58 Greene. Why did you choose those songs? Some oldies mixed with who knows what; honestly, I love the a cappella groups on campus and I am a huge fan, over all, of 58 Green and they’re work. However, this performance was simply not their best. I’m sure their concert will be better, and maybe it was just a weird staging, but I was not a big fan of their work last night.

The Harmonettes, on the other hand, were a huge success. I would say that it was one of their best performances I’ve seen. The soloists were talented, but not overbearing, and the song choices were fun, upbeat, and varied enough to hold my attention.

Wintry Mix was a huge success and I’m so proud of my friend who worked diligently to put on the show. The LSA Emergency Student Aid Fund is such an outstanding cause, working to “pay forward” the due respects they’ve earned through their scholarships to attend the University of Michigan. I’ll be sure to look out for any other future events of theirs.

PREVIEW: Wintry Mix by Appreciate and Reciprocate

Hello friends, nothing to do this Friday night? At 8pm, come support a wonderfully musical presentation featuring multiple groups on campus sponsored by the group Appreciate and Reciprocate. Appreciate and Reciprocate is “a community of Michigan scholarship students devoted to enriching the cycle of giving from which they’ve benefitted” (www.umichappreciate.org). With a sort of “pay it forward” mentality, they work to raise money for the LSA Emergency Student Aid Fund to help Michigan students stay enrolled after experiencing unexpected and difficult circumstances. One of my close friends is part of Appreciate and Reciprocate, and she ensures me that this event is going to be a ton of fun. So come out, enjoy, and support a great cause helping out your fellow students.

Tickets are between $7/$8 and its 8pm-9pm on January 27th. Location TBA – see website later in the week.