Elon University’s dance students and faculty will soar to new heights with the Fall Dance Concert beginning Nov. 6.
Though the dance concert is an annual performance, this year it will be held in the Roberts Theatre in Scott Studios for the first time. Artistic Director Jennifer Guy said she’s very excited to be in the new space as it gives a fresh look to the show.
The performance will include works choreographed by students and faculty along with Gerri Houlihan, a guest choreographer who is world renowned for choreography and dance.
This show has been a year in the making. The student choreography featured in the concert has been in production since last fall. First conceptualized in the “Choreography 1” or “Choreography 2” courses, routines were then performed to an audience for selection.
“After the presentation, the audience members gathered and selected those three works,” Guy said. “We thought it was a great opportunity. We’ve been doing this for a while — for our students to dig deeper into their work and develop costumes and lighting and get experience on a stage.”
The student pieces featured vary in length, number of dancers and style. Including all seven works, the show will run about an hour long with no intermission.
Houlihan’s featured dance was first performed in 1993 at New World School of the Arts in Miami. Her process of teaching the dancers their choreography was less collaborative than some of the other pieces because she had a clear vision from previous performances.
“[Houlihan] had a piece already set and so we learned different movements of the piece from her and from watching video of it,” said freshman Brennan Kolbo, who is featured in Houlihan’s piece. “After everyone knew different sections, then she cast different parts to different people.”
Kolbo said Houlihan’s piece is quirky, as well as deceptively athletic.
“Just watching it I’m like ‘Oh that’s so pretty, that’s funny,’” she said. “Then when you actually do it, by the end I’m out of breath because I’m sprinting everywhere and lifting people.”
This is Houlihan’s first year working with Elon students, but Guy hopes she will return for future collaborations.
Guy’s piece varies from Houlihan’s because she was very collaborative with the students. In an effort to challenge herself, Guy wanted to create more movement on the spot with the dancers, having them add their own dance phrases.
The piece took about six rehearsals to reach full development.
“I was very involved with the students,” Guy said. “It was almost like we were co-authors or co-movement generators — it was a really fun experience. I came in with the phrase altered state, and that’s how we generated movement and idea.”
During one rehearsal, Guy asked her dancers a series of questions to help compose new phrases for the piece. A phrase is a moment of choreography, similar to a sentence in a book, Guy said.
“I asked them, ‘Which movement do you feel most comfortable doing?’ ‘Which movement is most challenging for you?’ ‘Which movement makes you feel awkward?’ and ‘Which movement is the most comfortable?,’” she said. “I wrote those down and we made a phrase based on those responses. They had no idea that was going to happen.”
When audiences first enter the theater, they will see LED lights illuminating a stage covered with feathers and lamps filled with water. This is the stage set for Coordinator of the Dance Program, Lauren Kearns’ piece. The piece is a solo that incorporates aspects of the set.
In addition to viewing the dance portion of the evening, Guy recommends that audiences arrive to the venue early to see movies created during the Elon in LA program last summer.
Guy participated as a professor in the Elon in LA program for three years now and wants to display the pieces her students worked on this summer in her “Dance for the Camera” course.
Accompanying the movies, there will also be a series of photographs of dancers displayed for the audience to enjoy.
The show runs from Nov. 6-8. On Friday there are two shows at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. On Saturday, performances are at 2 p.m., 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and one show on Sunday at 2 p.m.