Body image, feminism, a battle of push and pull, invisible stories and the interconnection of a dancer and the audience are all themes explored in Elon University’s fall dance concert titled “Echoes and Currents.”
Directed by performing arts professors Elijah Motley and Jen Guy Metcalf, the show will feature works from four facility members and four works from students. “Echoes and Currents” will run Nov. 14 to 16 in Roberts Studio Theatre located in Scott Studios.
Metcalf said the title of the show comes from an attempt by all the directors of dance shows this season to make each dance performance this season interconnected and focused on duality.
“Somehow we landed on the idea of opposite ends of the spectrum, words that are in opposition,” Metcalf said.
Metcalf said this interconnectness shows the idea of opposites with September’s Dancing in the Landscape, titled “Boundaries and Breakthroughs,” also directed by Metcalf and Motley. The spring dance concert — titled “Roots and Horizons” — will also follow this pattern.
Motley said the title for the fall dance concert can show a duality between stillness and movement.
“It feels like a duality between what is common, what is disturbed, or how a way that people might take just tossing a coin or a rock in a still river, understanding how that changes the environment of it all,” Motley said.
Metcalf said the process behind putting on the fall dance concert begins the previous school year with meetings determining who will direct each show for the season. Then,she and Motley figured out which faculty were available to put choreography in the show and gave students the chance to audition their choreography.
All of the student choreographers auditioned works they created in one of Elon’s dance classes. For juniors Winnell Henriquez and Lucy Burk said their pieces will be solos. Senior Evelyn Ealey’s work will be a duet with another student. Senior Lila Snodgrass choreographed a larger group work.
Henriquez said her work entitled “Distorted Mirrors” explores body image and the struggle dancers can face looking in the mirror everyday. She said she hopes even if audience members can’t directly relate to the piece it can allow them to reflect.
“They don't necessarily have to relate, but understand what it's about, and that there is that inner struggle,” Henriquez said. “Also, they can think about maybe their insecurities too, and that it's okay.”
Burk said her piece, “Ms. Understood,” focuses on being a woman in today’s world and the idea that in history women are constantly being lifted up and torn down.
“That kind of reminds me of waves and currents of being pushed up but being pulled back, and so I just thought it worked really well for my piece,” Burk said.
Ealey said her duet, entitled “Keep Listening,” features a tense battle of push and pull between her and her partner. The way the battle of the dance ends, Ealey said, inspired the title with her hope that the audience will pay attention to not only the dance but the world around them.
“There's so much happening, but it doesn't have to be political or anything, just being tapped into being a global citizen, a nice person, community driven, all of those things,” Ealey said.
Snodgrass said her group dance, “Cross Court,” explores the idea that dancers are also people. She said she intentionally choreographed the piece to be a bit awkward and funny.
“I'm just trying to acknowledge that we're all here together, and then it's a little bit weird that we're all in this like separate roles of watching the show, but just acknowledging that we're there in the space together as for the show as a whole,” Snodgrass said.
Motley and Metcalf also created works for the show. Motley said his piece, “Running in Place,” focuses on how people can act differently in varying environments. He said the dancers run in place the whole time in addition to the choreography.
“It's more of a look into duality of two different states of being,” Motley said. “I think as I choreograph or as I watch it now, it feels like a commentary, a social commentary, of how we act in certain situations, or code switching or maybe just being on campus, off campus, and trying and seeing what that lot is in between those different worlds.”
Metcalf said she is bringing back a work she produced in 2019, entitled “The Light We Cannot See,” which was inspired by the book of the same name by Anthony Doerr. The book focuses on the invisible stories of World War II, which Metcalf said she pulled from, adding radio sounds and French voices to the music.
Metcalf said she loves the process of directing shows at Elon and getting to work and mentor students.
“I hope that the audience members are entertained and are inspired by what the students have to share on stage, behind the stage, and in other areas of the theater, because they worked so hard to make this production come to life, and I'm very proud of them,” Metcalf said.
“Echoes and Currents” will run Nov. 14 to 16 with evening shows at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 and 15, as well as afternoon shows at 2 p.m. Nov. 15 and 16. Tickets are $15 or free with an Elon ID and can be reserved on the Elon Performing Arts website.