The air fills with the swells and dips of a piano, two cellists, and a violinist, all moving in one, fluid motion. Students lean eagerly over the railings as a dancer gracefully bends and curls across the floor. The only moving things are the dancer and the strings.
String Moves, a concert put on by four professional musicians and a renowned choreographer and dancer, took place in the Torrey Atrium in Beck Hall on Sunday, April 13. Beck Hall was packed with students and community members.
The musicians included violinist Francesca Anderegg, cellists David Carter and Wilhelmina Smith, and pianist and Gustavus professor Esther Wang. The interpretive dancing was done by Kim Neal Nofsinger.
The idea for String Moves came from the brilliance of Music Appreciation Professor Esther Wang.
“We picked this music because some of the music is from fairy tales. It incorporated movement like a fluttering leaf, a gust of wind– anything that inspired movement,” Wang said.
The concert was part of a series for the Music Appreciation class and was held in the Beck Atrium. It was a unique space to hold it in, with different viewing vantage points, comfortable seating, and fabulous acoustics.
“It was strange that Beck Hall, a place where I had done countless hours of homework, had been transformed into a concert hall,” Senior Kat Dahl said.
The concert was composed of eight different pieces, all with allusions to movement. The repertoire included “Divertimento,” Suite from The Fairy’s Kiss, composed by Stravinsky, “Sacher Variations,” by Britten, “Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 119,” by Prokofiev, “Sonata for Cello and Piano,” by Debussy, “Pohadka (Fairy Tale)” and “On an Overgrown Path,” by Janacek, “Seven Tunes Heard in China,” by Bright Sheng, and “Pop Swatches,” by Doug Opel. The pieces were of varying emotions. Some pieces were aggressive and sharp, while other pieces were flowing and sweet.
“The music for the most part carried a disjunctive theme throughout the concert, containing many odd pauses and thoughts,” Sophomore Quad Kilander said.
Choreographer and dancer Kim Neal Nofsinger appeared in three of the pieces.
“I had been working alongside the dancer at the Interlochen Arts Camp for many years, but had never actually had the chance to work with him. I’d seen him dance, I’d seen his colleagues and his students, and I finally said, we’ve got to put something together,” Wang said.
Nofsinger is the Artistic Director and founder of Shelter Repertory Dance Theatre. His choreography has been produced within the United States, China, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, and Austria.
“I enjoyed how the music and the dancing complimented but did not distract from one another. The dancer internalized the music and used his body to show how sound moves,” Dahl said.
Nofsinger was selected from over 120 works at the Minnesota Fringe Festival to receive Critics’ Choice for Best Dance Production. One of his duets was also selected by the American Dance Guild as one of the phenomenal works produced in the U.S. in 1999.
“The interpretive dance component I felt had much of the same sporadicness as the music, as the dance seemed confused or conflicted, and visibly contained an internal struggle portrayed by the dancer,” Kilander said.
The concert was a beautiful collaboration of musicians, dancers, teachers, community members and students. For one hour, Beck Hall was alive with music and movement.