The Gustavus Dance Company has been working hard to put together their spring concert entitled “Balance Off Center.” The concert will have a variety of pieces choreographed by students, faculty and guest artists. The dance concert will be held in Anderson Theatre on Friday, Mar. 4 and Saturday, Mar. 5 2011 from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. There will be another concert on Sunday, Mar. 6, 2011 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Tickets are required and are on sale now at gustavustickets.com, SAO desk or at the door. Tickets cost $9 for adults and $6 for students and seniors (tickets are free for Gustavus students and staff).
Each piece in this concert is crafted with numerous hours spent searching for the perfect piece of music, blending movements together and practicing. Theatre and Dance Assistant Professor Melissa Rolnick and Theatre and Dance Visiting Assistant Professor Jeffery Peterson are co-artistic directors of the dance concert.
Rolnick explained how the student choreographers were chosen for this dance concert. “In the fall we had a student-produced show called ‘Shared Space.’ We selected three pieces from there that we felt deserved to be on the main stage. It was a difficult choice, especially to have one student have two pieces, but her work is really outstanding,” Rolnick said.
The two student choreographers for this concert are Senior Health Fitness Major Haley Carpenter and Junior Dance Major Renee Guittar. Carpenter choreographed a piece titled “Normality of Abnormality.” Her piece is made up of five dancers, and her inspiration came from the abnormal psychology class that she took last fall. “My piece focuses on the struggles of anxiety and depression, how we hide these feelings from people and how they affect relationships and how they can bottle up inside you and you lose control. Then you are just in a constant search for stability and some people can reach that while others fight the battle every day.” Carpenter said.
Carpenter selected music for her piece by listening to hours worth of songs on Pandora Radio until she found a song that fit her piece. She thought of dance movements for her piece by looking for dance partner poses online. She found 15 to 20 different pictures of poses that she and her dancers tried to recreate. “ Everything we did, especially partner work, we looked at what is the intention behind the movement? What does it relate to?” Capenter said.
Larissa McConell, the costume instructor, has worked closely with the student choreographers, mentoring them in their choices for costumes while also creating the ones worn by the pieces choreographed by the faculty and guest artists. Carpenter’s costumes are different shades of blue, purple and black. All of the costumes are individualized, but tied together by the colored theme to show “we all have a little something inside that is a struggle or a stress,” Carpenter said.
Guittar choreographed two pieces for the dance concert; one is a group dance while the other is a solo. She started out by conducting some research about consumerism and waste, and this became an inspiration for her piece. The group piece will be danced by five dancers who are wearing costumes designed by Guittar and created by her mother. “I had this idea of using white and red, almost patriotic, but not. It’s a commentary on American culture. White is purity and red is greed and jealousy,” Guittar said. The solo that she choreographed was created in the fall and is not based on a concrete story, but was a channel for her own self expression. “ This concert is very diverse and covers a lot of issues. It’s informative and fun. We’ve worked all year on this concert; it’s our final showcase,” Guittar said.
Some other choreographers’ work to look for at the concert is from three faculty members, Jeffery Peterson, Ashleigh Penrod and Melissa Rolnick. One of the guest artists who are choreographing at this concert is from the Stuart Pimsler Theatre and Dance Company, which did a residency at Gustavus. They have created a piece for 18 students The other guest is Joe Chzala, who is one of the directors of Flying Foot Forum in Minneapolis. He has set a piece for two male dancers.
The students, faculty and guest artists have been working extremely hard on this concert and are excited to perform. There is variety in the pieces in this concert, which is sure to reach out in same way to those who experience it.
“‘Balance Off Center’: it’s a theme for the concert, but in my mind it is metaphoric for life. We struggle with the unruly demands with life and are trying to find balance. ‘Balance off Center’ has broader ramifications,” Rolnick said.